


How I spent my summer vacation.

by Shock_Cooling



Series: Refractions of sanity. [3]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-10
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:07:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 47,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23583586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shock_Cooling/pseuds/Shock_Cooling
Summary: Following her jump starting of the Realm of Magic. StarFan13 finds that there's a couple of loose ends to tie up.
Relationships: StarFan13/Jackie Lynn Thomas
Series: Refractions of sanity. [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697620
Comments: 21
Kudos: 11





	1. Opening up the throttle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://youtu.be/VIDXGkoTbaE

The day had gone well. 

After walking Britney home, Pauline had wandered aimlessly around Echo Creek for the rest of the day. Her body had changed, quite dramatically. She needed time alone to get used to it. She hadn't said anything at the time but when Jackie had grabbed her breasts, it had hurt, a lot. As much as Pauline was looking forward to playing with these new things there was no way she could do so today. Her entire body was just too sensitive. 

She really liked her new body though. It was as close as she could imagine to physical perfection that a fourteen year old girl could achieve. So she wandered alone until night fell. As the sun went down she returned home and fell asleep. Hoping that when she woke up the next day she wouldn't be quite so sensitive. 

Not long after falling asleep Pauline had a vision of tumbling down a well. 

She felt her body coming into resonance with magic. 

Her eyes took on a turbine pattern. 

This was an absolutely insane force of magic. She had sensed it before though, many times. Only now it was coming in clearer than ever. She could sense her subconscious having become one with the dimension of magic. 

"Ah, there you are, Kolibri." 

"Come on down, I've got a lot to show you. But there's something we have to address first."

Pauline materialized in front of a house. She was pretty sure she recognized it from a particularly unpleasant... Dream.

"Good lord, Kolibri!? What the heck are we doing back here?" 

"Learning something we can't learn any other way." 

A certain vampire that Pauline had hoped never to ever see again walked up to the front door. 

Pauline started breathing raggedly. 

The vampire knocked on the door. 

Time began to speed up. Then as the door opened it slowed to a crawl. 

"Oh my god!" Pauline exclaimed. 

She had been unable to see the first time. This time though she could see. 

The first variation of Pauline's older self. The one who had created all this had a painting of herself fighting alongside Star Butterfly, Marco Diaz and Jackie. The first thing that Pauline had noticed the first time she was here was that this variation had the exact same painting. 

This time she noticed that she didn't own the painting. She was the painting. This variation lived in a universe where the circumstances of that painting had been made to come true. At a terrible cost. 

Pauline studied this older variations wings as time slowed to a near stop. Even though the variation was still disguised as a young girl, Pauline could see her wings. The first variation of herself. The one she called Bridge Girl had six large curving wings. This one had four smaller diamond shaped wings. Now Pauline could see one other very important difference. These four wings weren't just a way for her to control and regulate magic. They were functioning as links between four different timelines. 

The lower right wing was her timeline. The upper right wing went to 'Bridge Girl's' timeline. The lower left wing appeared to be connected to a collapsing or otherwise dying timeline. The link was spluttering and dying. The upper left wing connected to something rather alarming. There was an unpleasant green hue to it. 

It gave this variations aura a strange hue. Like good and evil was in a constant conflict with itself within this poor woman's... Spine. 

Pauline suddenly went from feeling a profound disgust and hatred of this version of her older self, to pity. She had already learned from Jackie how this variation had been created as a result of seeing most of Star's friends and family die on Stump Day. Now that she knew the rest of the story...

Time resumed its normal flow. But instead of watching in transfixed horror at the vampire being eaten, Pauline went around the variations house. Looking at pictures, books, diaries. Getting to know this variation of herself as well as she could. 

The vampire was once again cured and sent on its way. 

The variation closed the front door and said, "I can sense you in here. Come out and show yourself."

Pauline faced her older self. Said hello and asked, "do your wings hurt?" 

"Do they..." 

She looked at her wings. 

This variation felt a pain that she had never felt before. It was agonizingly deep, radiating through her entire body. Her left wings took on a crazy hue of insidious looking green. The variation collapsed to her knees and said, "nope, don't worry... I got this... Probably just a side effect from eating that damn vampire." 

Pauline walked up to her older self and said. "I'm sorry you had to go through this. And I'm even more sorry you had to go through whatever it was that turned me into you. But it's time to let go."

Pauline grasped the lower left wing and pulled stoutly. The wing detached and was torn to pieces. Then she grabbed the upper left wing and tore it off. 

The variation howled in agony and whimpered. "No! I've lost symmetry!!!"

Pauline replied, "no you haven't. You've been tricked."

The green wing flopped around on the floor for a little while. It began to turn into a humanoid figure about two feet tall. It appeared to be a woman.

It stood up. 

Pauline felt Kolibri's hands caress her gently. Then turn into a shield. 

The humanoid figure had no eyes or clothes. It had hair entirely made of green flame. Around its neck was a necklace with an eye in the middle. The eye was horizontal. 

Kolibri manifested, reached down and turned the eye to a vertical orientation. 

"What the hell is that!?" Her old self screamed. 

"Something I think you're better off without." Pauline explained. 

The small humanoid figure collapsed to its knees and said said. "I have felt Angels wings crushed under my feet. I have triumphed over a fleet of starships. I faced the Final Cold. How can it end, like... This?" 

The figure dissolved to nothing. As one last flame flashed from it an outline of a horizontally oriented eye emerged in its place. 

The eye blinked. 

A voice, neither male or female said. "Thank you." As this eye blinked out of existence. 

The variation opened her eyes fully for the first time in years. 

"I was tricked, and I didn't even know I was being tricked. All these years, I thought I had picked up some... Oh boy..." 

The variation staggered to the nearest bathroom and started puking up blackened vampire blood. Pauline watched this for a moment and said, "good luck with that!" 

Reality deconstructed and reconstructed itself around Pauline. 

Pauline was no longer in her older self's house. She was standing not far away from the infamous railroad bridge of Bridge Girl's timeline. 

Janna was standing in front of her, saying. "I want to live on." 

"Am I stopping you from doing that?" Pauline asked. 

Janna cocked her head. She was about to say something else when Kolibri materialized. Kolibri pointed to the bridge. Pauline recognized a fifteen year old variation of herself on the bridge, wearing a dress. 

"This version of you was the one who became that other version." Explained Kolibri. "All you have to do is let this version of Janna save her." 

"Janna? Really? I have to leave this up to Janna?" Asked Pauline. 

"Look into her eyes, Pauline. This isn't your usual Janna Ordonia." 

Pauline looked really close. On the surface this Janna looked like any other. But the eyes were different. They seemed incomprehensibly old and wise. It was strange but Pauline felt like she could trust this particular Janna. Pauline gently extended her hand for a handshake. Janna took it and returned a firm shake. 

Pauline stood aside and left things in Janna's hands. 

Kolibri phased out of her humanoid form and became a set of four curving wings on Paulines back. Pauline launched off the ground, into the sky. Then into space. 

"Want to guess where we're going?" Asked Kolibri. 

"Judging by our considerable speed, I would guess the dimension of magic?" Pauline said as they blew past the Earth's moon. 

Even though their speed increased every moment they were in flight, it was still a very long flight. When Kolibri had flown this route, tracing the path 'Bridge Girl' had taken to the magic dimension she didn't need supplemental oxygen. But since she had recombined with Pauline. Kolibri used a skimming technique instead. Creating portals to dip down into the atmospheres of planets on the way. 

Pauline came up to what looked like the very edge of the multiverse and shot clean through it. 

Kolibri and Pauline separated again. Pauline flew wingless through an impossibly dark void at a speed that could only be called ludicrous. But it didn't feel like any speed at all. There was no frame of reference. 

There was a golden light ahead. Pauline flew towards it, as she drew closer it grew larger until she saw what the dimension of magic had become, at least on the outside. A giant golden horse, with a hummingbird insignia on its rump. 

Pauline slowed down. 

She came face to face with the horse. 

Pauline was terrified. She had this overwhelming feeling that this was an entity so vast and powerful that it could qualify as a God that other gods prayed to. 

The... Horse sniffed her for a moment then blinked. 

Pauline materialized within the dimension of magic. It looked significantly more mechanical than she was expecting. 

"So I suppose this is your doing?" Pauline asked. 

"You suppose correctly." Replied Kolibri, her voice seemingly booming from every fiber of the dimension. 

"So, why does it look like you're turning this place into a factory?" Asked Pauline. 

"Look to your left." 

Golden magic was supposed to flow up into the wells. In this case a silvery magic was flowing down into the golden fluid at Paulines feet. The silvery liquid was being corralled and channeled towards machinery. "Wait, I thought magic was supposed to flow out of here, not into here?" Asked Pauline. 

"Normally yes, magic flows into this dimension by means that are supposed to be imperceptible. But ever since I showed up here there's been a steady flow of magic into this place from Earth. I had to build this equipment to keep the dimension from being contaminated. Earth's magic is powerful, but it seems to have pollutants." 

"I presume the industrial apparatus is to filter out said pollutants?" Asked Pauline. 

A tiny airship, about the size of a small house cat floated by Paulines nose. As it rose higher in the sky it grew in size until it was bigger than the Hindenburg. Kolibri explained. 

"The contaminants become a 50/50 mix of pollutants and magic. Once contained in a gas bag the pollutants shift form from a liquid to a gas. These ships are sent out filled with contaminants in gaseous form. The gas both provides lift and powers the airships. They will fly for years, long enough for the contaminants inside to become inert. They are sneezed out by the horse that this dimension has become, off to barren, desolate worlds throughout the multiverse. By the time they get to where they are going they have become not just inert. But beneficial, like magical compost. That which would have brought death. Now brings life." 

Pauline examined the launching mechanism in detail as a hose disconnected from another tiny airship. 

The airships six adorable miniature V12 engines started. Clamps released and the craft flew away. 

"You took this idea from Madoka Magica rebellion, didn't you?" Asked Pauline. 

"I think there's a bit of a Scientology influence to the concept as well. But yeah." Replied Kolibri. 

"Okay, so you dealt with the contaminants. But that still doesn't get around the fact that magic is flowing from Earth to here and an awful lot of it at that. Will the flow eventually change and bring about equilibrium?" 

"I'm pretty sure it will once Earth's relative pressure equalizes with the rest of the multiverse. Simple fluid dynamics, magic flows from where it is under high pressure to low pressure. It used to be that the dimension of magic had the highest such pressure, now Earth does." 

"What changed?" Asked Pauline. 

"I think we did. When we used the carousel to recharge the wand we facilitated the purification and rebirth of the magic dimension. All this seems to be the dimension of magic, 'returning the favor' energetically speaking." 

Kolibri materialized. 

Paulines jaw dropped. 

Kolbri was always fairly good looking, with her smiling version of Britney's face. Now she looked absolutely resplendent. Wearing a form fitting white dress, with her hummingbird wings having acquired a positively preposterous degree of detail, colors and iridescence. A light seemed to be emanating from within her, Pauline had to fight a considerable desire to start kissing her right there and then. 

Kolibri walked over to Pauline and said, "we should probably get going though. It's only by the burden of thousands of years of Earths history that I've been able to maintain my individuality. If we stay here we will be washed clean of memories like everything else that comes through here."

Kolibri started kissing Pauline. 

Pauline kissed her right back. 

The kissing grew more and more intense until Kolibri turned into a vapor. Pauline inhaled it as hard as she could. Allowing her subconscious to reintegrate fully. 

Pauline was sneezed out of the horse along with a dozen airships. After another long flight she realized that she was looking at the planet Earth from space. Pauline woke up in her own bed. 

She couldn't even begin to describe how invigorated she felt. 

A compulsion, an absurd desire possessed her. She got dressed, got on her bike and rode over to Jackie's house. 

After poking around in Jackie's garage for a little while Pauline found what she was looking for. 

She carefully disassembled and reassembled a pair of Jackie's finest skateboards. After a quick trip down to a local skate shop for parts the boards were ready. Pauline went up to the window next to Jackie's bed and tapped on the glass. 

Jackie woke up and opened the window, "what's... Yawn. What's going on?" 

Jackie saw the boards and expressed a quizzical look. 

"Whatever kind of anti skid gear you got. Knee pads, helmets, elbow pads, wrist cuffs, put them on." Said Pauline. 

Jackie got dressed in an outfit she hadn't worn in quite some time. It had undeniably become a bit tight in the chest area. As she clipped on her elbow pads Pauline used her dimensional scissors to create a portal. 

Jackie followed her through. 

The portal opened on a road going over the summit of a very very high mountain pass. 

Connections fired in Jackie's mind. 

"Are you nuts? The last time you were on a board you turned yourself into shredded beef! Now you want to skate down... This!?!" 

A set of four curving holographic wings materialized on Paulines back. She levitated about four inches above the ground. "If I wipe out I'll just fly. If you wipe out you might die, so, you don't have to do this with me if you don't want to." 

Jackie looked down the mountain. 

This wasn't her kind of skating. She was about tricks, flips, grinding. This was... Like telling an average snowboarder to attempt a world record ski jump. 

Jackie examined the board. Pauline had very carefully modified it for the conditions at hand. 

Jackie got on the board and started down the road, as slowly as she could. Her speed rapidly increased. 

Jackie was scared. 

She hadn't felt this scared in years. 

Speed increased. 

Pauline began to follow. 

The first turn taxed Jackie's skating skills like nothing in memory. It took every ounce of concentration and will she had to pull through it. 

She looked back. 

Pauline made the turn easily. She was standing very upright on the board. Seemingly not using her body at all. Just standing on it with perfect posture like some archetypal English gentleman. She was using Kolibri and magic to perfectly manage her inertia. 

She skated past Jackie and said, "eyes on the road Thomas! This is going to be much more dangerous for you than for me!" 

Pauline took the lead. Searching the road ahead for gravel or other objects that might send Jackie tumbling to her death. 

Jackie leaned forward. 

Their speeds increased. 

Jackie's fear began to dissolve. Even though they were going faster than she had ever gone on a board. Jackie couldn't help but be swept up in exhilaration. This was simply the most challenging and intense skateboarding she had done in months. 

Every turn required perfect control. 

Not too fast. 

There was a switchback turn ahead. There was no way Pauline could make the turn at their speed. 

Jackie slowed down. 

Pauline launched off the road like a missile. As Jackie carefully navigated the turn Pauline flew on her wings down to a lower level of the road. 

Pauline slowed down so Jackie could catch up. 

There was a straightaway ahead. Pauline offered Jackie a hand. 

As soon as Jackie took it she slowed down. 

They did a kind of dance on their boards as they slowed, Pauline was controlling their inertia. They should have been speeding up but they weren't. 

It was a good thing too because there was traffic on the road ahead. 

They separated and took different routes through the cars. 

Clear of the traffic they linked up again as Pauline increased their speed. 

Jackie felt something on her back. She began to believe. 

Pauline let go as they slalomed through more turns. 

Right past a hidden police officer. 

Jackie and Pauline saw the flashing lights behind them and decided. 

"Let's get this asshole." 

The police SUV began to close the distance as they approached another series of turns. 

Pauline and Jackie went into the turns very very quickly. 

The cop had to struggle with his massive vehicle. He was pushing right up against the limits of balance. 

As they came to one more straightaway Pauline shouted to Jackie. "Go ahead, I'm going to take care of this!" 

Jackie continued on as Pauline slowed down. Very carefully she maneuvered around the SUV in a way that wouldn't allow her face to be seen by the vehicles dash cam. 

To the cop what he was seeing wasn't Pauline Long. It was someone wearing a rubber horse mask. 

Pauline snapped her fingers, triggering an EMP burst. 

Pauline reached down and grabbed the bottom of her board, allowing her to jump on top of the cop car. Instead of surfing on the board she was now surfing on the roof of the SUV. 

With all electronics out the cop muscled his dead vehicle towards a runaway truck ramp. As soon as the SUV hit the gravel Pauline launched off the vehicle and flew away to rejoin Jackie. 

Pauline landed just behind Jackie as they began to make their way through the furthest outskirts of Echo Creek.


	2. Tapestries.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Star and Pauline discuss the circumstances that led them here. And where they are going next.

Jackie looked behind. 

She wanted to stop and tell Pauline that was the most intense boarding she had done in months and how she wanted to do it again. 

But Pauline wasn't behind her anymore. Pauline had changed course and was skating over to the Diaz household. Pauline had business with Star that couldn't wait any longer. 

Pauline hid the board and straightened herself up as she walked up to the front door. This was the first time Pauline met with Star following the unsealing of Eclipsa. And despite the fact that she had just flown down a mountain and had caused a cop to crash their car she was nervous. 

She had so many questions. 

She tapped on the front door. Star opened it. 

"Come in." Said Star, they went up to her room where Star resumed pacing back and forth anxiously, she asked. "Do you know any spells to keep from being spied on?" 

Pauline replied, "yeah, one." 

Star pointed to the wand and said, "cast it please." 

Pauline picked up the wand, it did not change forms as she cast. "Anti clam jamming glitter bubble." 

Star examined the pink, plastic like bubble that was now all over the walls of her room. Pauline checked her phone. No service. "It may not look like much. But this will keep out all forms of communications. I've modified the spell slightly to work as a faraday cage. What's got you feeling so paranoid?" 

"I've read Eclipsa's chapter. I think she is trustworthy. But I'm not sure just yet. I don't want to risk her spying on us." 

"Ah that makes sense. So, where is Eclipsa?" 

"Marco and Buffrog are keeping her hidden at his house. But that's not what I want to talk about." 

Star opened a drawing book, inside was a fairly decent line drawing of a tapestry portraying Star, Pauline, Jackie, Marco and Ponyhead fighting monsters. On the opposite page was an image of Star, Janna, Hekapoo, Marco, Eclipsa and someone that Pauline did not recognize. Star had decapitated Eclipsa with a sword. 

Pauline chuckled and said, "that's interesting." 

"Interesting how?" 

"That is your tapestry from Bridge Girls timeline. But this... Is not the only one of these I have seen recently." 

Pauline grabbed the wand and held it close to her heart, then stared at a wall. A holographic projection shot from her eyes. "I think this is from yet another timeline. One where you destroyed all magic because... Well, frankly. Even though I saw everything that led up to it, it didn't make much sense. The actions of your mother were particularly baffling in that reality. Either way..." 

Star interrupted, shouting. "I destroyed all magic? What? Why?!" 

"This is a bit of an oversimplification. But, a sequence of events happened that led you to conclude that magic was only useful as a tool of oppression against monsters. Then this tapestry showed up and... Huh." 

"Huh?" Asked Star. 

Pauline hastily traced out the holographic image in pencil on another blank page in the book. 

"I mean huh. This was the straw that broke the camels back. It was just the right bit of information at just the right time in just the right place to convince you to destroy the realm of magic. When that happened, all hell broke loose, quite literally. Earth was cleaved together with Mewni. Hell went from an abstract religious concept to an actual physical location beneath the soil of Southern California. Monsters, technologies, property. It all became a soup of chaos. War broke out. Not between monsters and mewmans but between all the monsters of the multiverse and humanity here on Earth. And then there's this." 

Pauline tapped on the image of her in battle alongside Star. 

"I think Bridge Girl willed this into existence, she was looking at this while she was at her peak of magical ability. This image was made to happen, creating Vampire Girl's timeline. And thus creating the most deeply fucked up version of me I've seen so far because this image required the most deviation from the main timeline perhaps? I don't know, I'll have to think about it. But I can't help but believe now that when these tapestries are portraying future events that they are incredibly dangerous. Where's Glossarick?" 

"Glossarick left yesterday. He said something about entering a thousand mile Baja off road race." 

"Is the book still here?" 

"Yeah." Star got out the book. Pauline traced her hands over it and breathed in its scent. Pauline asked. "I'm going to need to spend some time reading this. But we're going to have to come up with a plan regarding Eclipsa. What do you think about her?" 

Star looked anxious as she said. "Eclipsa... Eclipsa is really nice. We talked and talked and talked, Marco likes her, Buffrog trusts her. But when I asked her what happened to her hands. She wouldn't tell me and she changed the subject." 

"Yeah, I've seen what Eclipsa did to fix her hands in Bridge Girls timeline. She broke into a monastery, killed a monk and set free an incredibly powerful and dangerous entity. She is a kind person, but damn reckless. So, she wouldn't explain what she did to mess up her hands? Interesting, I... Kinda know. But I'm not sure. The evidence I have seen indicates that she cast a certain spell. A spell designed to kill immortal beings. She had to cast this spell a whole bunch of times. But... Despite all the memories in my head, despite all the research I've done I've never..." 

Connections fired in Paulines head. 

"Have you found Meteora yet?" 

"No. Why?" 

"I just realized something. A kind of crucial point in all this. Meteroa became Miss Heinous because she was raised by a soulless robot. But she had plenty of time to... Hmm. Star, can we go to St Olga's?" 

"I suppose we can, if you still have those scissors you bought at Quest Buy." 

"I do, I want to see what Miss Heinous's teaching curriculum was. I want to know what the purpose of her brainwashing was." 

"Isn't that obvious? She wanted power." 

Pauline waggled her finger and replied. 

"I'm not so sure about that. She brainwashed the daughters of the noble families of the multiverse for centuries. Now she is living homeless in a car someplace. It doesn't add up. She could have set herself up as the power behind the throne for any throne in the multiverse. No, I've been suspecting for a little while that there's something else going on and I think it's time we address it. But first..." 

Pauline took out a camera and took pictures of the sketches. Then reversed the glitter bubble spell. "I need to spend some time reading this book." 

Star replied, "okay. Do you mind if I go take a shower?" 

"Yeah, that's fine." Pauline replied in a noncommittal tone. 

Star didn't express her feeling of being crestfallen as she left the room. 

Pauline opened the book. She had increasingly faint memories from Vampire Girl's timeline of a reconstructed version of the book. This copy was so much more... Rough and full compared to that reconstructed version that alternate version of herself had read. As she read she found some spells and histories that simply were not available in the reconstructed version. 

As the shower head came on Pauline flipped to the blank pages at the end of the book. She took a pair of normal, but very sharp scissors and cut a small sliver from one of the pages. Then she started flipping through various chapters, taking notes. 

She flipped to Eclipsa's chapter. Skimmed the whole thing and wondered what the heck there was in there that would cause Marco to lose his damn mind and float in the air. Then Pauline found something that she wasn't expecting to find in that chapter. 

The sound of water from the shower ceased. 

Kolibri materialized and said. "You do realize that Star is probably inviting you to go take a look at her." 

"Maybe, the key thing will be..." 

Star walked back into her room, wrapped up in a towel. "Find everything you were looking for?" Star asked. 

"Yes, well, except for this one thing. Here, in Eclipsa's chapter. There's several sealed pages." 

Pauline showed Star the dozen or so pages that were still locked together. The cover page was a knights helm over a purple flower. 

"A sealed section in a sealed chapter. That's something that kinda screams for attention, doesn't it? I don't know how to unlock these pages. I imagine Glossarick could, but well..." 

Star looked at the pages and said, "yeah, never noticed this before. What do you think it's about?" 

"No clue, but there's something I keep hearing over and over again from various places. The Knights of St Crocus. I think this might explain that." 

"Hmm." Replied Star as she walked over to her closet to get dressed. 

After going through the portal Pauline very seriously addressed the issue of Ponyhead. 

"Okay but seriously, don't tell her anything about me and especially don't say anything about me having knowledge of the future." 

"Why?" 

"Because I don't trust her." 

"Why not?" 

"Because she's annoying, and she comes from a family of..." 

"A family of what?" Asked Ponyhead. 

Pauline stared right at her and said. "Psychopaths and idiots. Inbred idiotic psychopaths I would guess." 

"Ooh, sounds like an awful person. Anyway, hey B-Fly. What you doing here? Come to visit me?" 

"Um, yeah. StarFan, can you take care of things from here?" 

"Sure. Go hang out with your friend."

While Star and Ponyhead went to do their thing, Pauline did her thing. Finding the cell in the basement where brainwashing was conducted. The equipment was dusty and abandoned. She found that the images that the victims were shown were all fairly uniform black and white images that appeared to be from books that looked like they traced to nineteenth century England. 

Pauline poured over the information. It was crude and above all else it was repetitive. 

Before coming here Pauline had embarked on a crash course to understand brainwashing. The techniques used here were incredibly primitive compared to what the CIA had developed in the fifties and sixties. Still effective though. The question remained, what was the intention of all this? 

Pauline tapped her foot anxiously. There was something here that she was missing. 

A faint memory trickled in. She didn't even know from where. A single word, annihilation. The information from her memories was fragmentary. Pauline remembered a butterfly shaped spell. Something incomprehensibly powerful and unable to be seen, except by echolocation. 

Pauline began making a clicking noise, looked and listened very carefully for anything that wasn't supposed to be there. Then Pauline realized where it had gone. 

It had gone to fulfill it's design intention. 

And Glossarick had helped? 

This was getting complicated and weird. These new memories were problematic. Pauline needed solid information. She had a pretty good idea where she would find it. 

But first there was something else that she wanted to look into. 

Pauline went up to the robot repair room where St Olga herself had been sitting idly for who knows how long. 

Pauline plugged her in. 

As she came back to life St. Olga asked, "where is my daughter?" 

"Where you can't find her. Tell me who created you and for what purpose." 

"I'm sorry young lady, that information is classified." 

"Why? On whose authority?" 

"That information is also classified."

"What do you have to say about Glossarick?" 

"Classified." 

Pauline remembered something. But she couldn't quite remember from where. 

"What can you tell me about St Crocus?" 

The robots eyes went wide. 

"Auto destruct system activated. Destruction in ten, nine, eight." 

Pauline ran out of the room. 

"Two, one... Kaboom!" 

Pauline examined the wreckage and said, "okay... didn't expect that to happen."

Several princesses came running up, Pauline explained herself as well as she could. But she was asked to leave the school. Pauline politely bowed out. She had gotten all she could find from this place.


	3. Meteora's reckoning.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pauline and Kolibri have a little run in with Miss Heinous and Kolibri just can't control herself. 
> 
> And a treatment for the condition of Eclipsa's hands is discovered.

Their business at St. Olga's concluded, Star and Pauline returned to Earth. Back to Star's room to be specific. Pauline said, "I've got something that I have to take care of with Jackie. I'll speak to you later." 

Pauline left the Diaz house and started walking home. 

As she walked she noticed a car driving up the road. It looked familiar. Then Pauline noticed who was behind the wheel. 

She stepped out in front of it. The car groaned to a stop. The driver got out, she asked. "Who are you and why are you standing in my way?" 

"Because you're an asshole, Meteora Butterfly, no other reason." Replied Pauline. 

"What? Who is Meteora?" Asked Miss Heinous. 

Pauline began making a clicking noise. She 'saw' a certain thing that wasn't supposed to be there. It had nested in Gemini's head. 

Very calmly, very quietly and very slowly she walked towards Gemini and drew an empty pickle jar she had just taken from the Diaz family's garbage. She trapped the annihilation spell in the jar. 

Gemini gasped and collapsed into nothing but a pile of rags. 

Pauline used echolocation clicks to confirm that she had the spell in the jar. Then allowed herself to see Miss Heinous with her full range of vision. 

Pauline couldn't hope to articulate it. 

It was more of a reflex than anything else. 

Pauline knew now what miss Heinous had wanted. Life everlasting. 

Pauline could see the energy banded within her. She could see all the way back to the very oldest most distant princesses she had harvested life energy from. 

Kolibri manifested and exclaimed, "fuck redemption, fuck second, third, fourth chances. You've had your chance, you've had chances in spades and I know exactly what you have done with them. You aren't the only person who had to grow up with a cold, psychopathic mother. But that doesn't mean you get to do whatever you want. Purgatory is over Meteora, you go to hell!" 

Kolibri plunged her hand inside Meteora's chest. The spirits were willing, this was just the chance they had been looking for, for so long. 

The ensuing effect was not unlike an exploding rubber band ball. A veritable storm of energy danced around Miss Heinous. 

She looked at herself. She had just aged... Dramatically. 

Pauline said. "Well, I suppose we're going to have to break this to Eclipsa. Kolibri, you couldn't have given her one last chance for rapprochement with her actual mother?" 

Kolibri looked at Pauline with the most ferocious expression that Pauline had ever seen on her face. Kolibri had something in her hands. She very slowly released it. 

A sparkling collection of lights in all the colors of the rainbow began to spin from Kolibri's hands. These spirits took on the forms of girls. Who thanked Kolibri for releasing them in their respective languages. Then dissolved completely and faded away. Kolibri grimly stated. "I could hear them screaming for me. I couldn't turn them down. Besides... She's not dead yet." 

Pauline sighed in resignation, grabbed Miss Heinous and made a portal to Buffrog's house. Their arrival was well timed. Marco was taking a nap, as were the tadpoles and Buffrog was busy outside chopping wood. Eclipsa was drinking some tea. Pauline introduced herself to Eclipsa and said. "Eclipsa... Um... I'm not sure how to say this. But this is your daughter, Meteroa." 

Eclipsa stood up and walked over to the old woman. The old woman looked at her and asked harshly. "Who the hell are you?!" 

Eclipsa looked at her teeth and eyes. She started breathing in quick gasps as she asked. "How... How are you still alive?

"Mm... What? Well... I harvested the life force out of the princesses of the multiverse. Tasted good too. I was having great fun until that... Thing on the couch wrecked everything... Say..."

Miss Heinous shuffled over to a large and stout butcher knife in Buffrog's kitchen and then shuffled over to where Marco was sleeping with the tadpoles. She raised the knife. Eclipsa ran over and grabbed the knife, saying. "Now Meteora, we mustn't do that!" 

"Mustn't do what? And who's this Meteora? My name is Heinous! Who the hell are you?" 

"I'm Eclipsa Butterfly, and I'm your mother." 

"Bullshit! You aren't my mother... My mother was... Oh yeah I remember her now. No wait, that doesn't make sense. She was a robot... But that means..." 

Meteora looked down at the hands that were trying to wrestle the knife away from her. "What happened to your hands, lady?" 

"I'd rather not talk about that right now." 

"So if you're supposed to be my mother... Where the hell were you all this time?" 

"Trapped in crystal, Meteora, please, sit down. Let go of the knife!" 

Miss Heinous looked down at the somehow still sleeping Marco. The tadpoles however were finally starting to wake up. As a couple of them looked up in horror Miss Heinous head butted Eclipsa and exclaimed. 

"Die Princess Marco!" 

Before Pauline could do anything, Eclipsa did. She kicked Miss Heinous as hard as she could in the stomach. Causing her to practically fly a short distance to the walls of Buffrog's house. She hit so hard that she nearly shattered like crockery. She was still holding the knife. After trying to move it she spat up some blood and said. 

"Some mother you are. You're worse than my real one." 

As her head tilted to the side her body dissolved into dust. 

Buffrog ran in with his axe. He was baffled by the pile of brownish dust and the rapidly aging rags that used to be Miss Heinous's clothes. 

Eclipsa was already crying. 

Marco finally woke up. 

Pauline asked, "do you mind if I take Eclipsa to get her hands fixed?" 

"No problem, fine by me." Said Buffrog. 

"Sure... Go." Said Marco in a distant tone. 

Pauline made a portal and urged Eclipsa through it. Once they were through Eclipsa said. "This... Is not The Sanctuary." 

"No, no it's not. This is Regiis Solum Lacrimae. It's a pocket dimension. Sorry Eclipsa, but I've got to give you an info dump... After you got sealed in crystal and your daughter was exiled into the loving arms of St. Olga. The Magical High Commission decided to hand the wand and the entire realm of Mewni off to some orphan from Pie Island. Said orphans reign was apparently a deranged, unending, soda fueled party inside Mewni Castle while war raged continuously outside the gates. The orphan gave birth to two daughters. One you might have liked, one that everyone liked. Even though she suffered from crippling depression, Dirhhennia. And one who certainly would not have liked you, Crecentia." 

Pauline began to run her fingers through the scented strands. 

"At first this place was where Crecentia hid her loneliness and negative thoughts. In time she decided to make something... Else out of it. She tried to use this place to facilitate gender swaps and interspecies breeding. That queen's lover was a mermaid. Over time it became a hideaway for Mewnian royalty. Particularly for when they were having trouble with magic. A safe place for them to practice spells, especially really... Dangerous ones." 

Pauline held up the jar with the Total Annihilation Spell in it. Threads descended around the jar and began to sap absolutely ungodly amounts of energy from the spell. "Recognize this?" Pauline asked as the spell became visible. Eclipsa stared at it and said... That's my mothers... That's the reason I..." 

Eclipsa's body began to resonate at an unfamiliar frequency as the dimension did its job and depowered the Total Annihilation Spell. It twitched and flopped inside the jar until it turned into nothing more than a dead butterfly. Then a pile of dust. 

The silken threads began to shimmer at a new frequency. The full potential of the dimension began to come online as the threads drew inexorably closer to the irresistibly powerful remaining source of very old magic. 

For Eclipsa everything was getting very cold. She was also getting very tired. She looked down at her hands. Something was undulating through them. Gnashing and thrashing around under her skin. It itched tremendously. 

Eclipsa collapsed to her knees. 

The light drew closer. It hesitated right before touching her hands. Eclipsa heard a voice. Neither masculine nor feminine. It sounded ancient and filled with a deep compassion. 

"Would you like me to help you through this?" 

"No, this is my pain! my magic! My hands have been rotted like this since before this dimension existed. You can't just take this away from me!" 

"No, I can't take it. But it also seems like you can't hold onto it."

An oily, purple-black horse about the size of a large rat exploded off of Eclipsas left wrist. It splatted onto the pillow between them and began to dissolve rapidly. Shrieking in agony as it was de powered. 

Pauline backed up. 

Eclipsa took off her gloves. The effect was not unlike breaking a water balloon as a large quantity of oily liquid that appeared to be full of small, vicious horses sloughed from Eclipsas hands. She screamed in pain as the horses began to tear their way out of her body. Tumbling onto the pillow below, dying on its surface. 

Eclipsa looked up to see Pauline towering over her. As more of the tiny horses ripped their way free Eclipsa felt more and more tired. So tired that she passed out. 

When Eclipsa woke up she found herself atop a transparent surface. It felt like silk. She was looking down at a torrent of what looked like water flowing around her. 

Pauline was standing at the edge of the torrent, she explained. "Hey, sorry, I'm not sure what's going on here either. But if I had to guess. I'd say the dimension is reconfiguring itself in order to deal with your... Extremely potent toxicity." 

Eclipsa tapped the surface. 

The transparent substance turned viscous, into something more like water. Ribbons undulated under the surface of the water like eels. 

Eclipsa screamed, "stop mummy! Stop! Stop! Please stop! Mummy! Please stop the killing! Please!!!" 

She shut her mouth. 

"I don't, I never..." As Eclipsas eyes darted about she finally saw Paulines cheek marks. 

Something primal snapped inside Eclipsa. Something that she had thought was dead and buried. 

She exploded to her feet and tried to run across the surface towards Pauline. 

The surface began moving beneath her not unlike a treadmill. Keeping Eclipsa perfectly positioned in the center of the round device. 

"So, why are you advancing on me with an expression of boundless hate in your eyes?" Asked Pauline. 

"Because you're my mother! How many times do I have to kill you!?!" 

Pauline blinked and replied. "I didn't know you killed your mother. Interesting. How did you kill her?" 

Eclipsa held up her hand and said, "to see my hated foe... Devoured!" 

A huge sludge horse launched from Eclipsa's hands. Fell in the liquid between and dissolved like a giant rat dropped in hydrofluoric acid. "Nice try, but that ain't gonna work here." Said Pauline, "who knows, perhaps I am a reincarnation of Solaria. It's not outside the realm of possibility. We had similar magical techniques. But unlike your mother..." 

Pauline clapped her hands together, then separated them slowly. 

Eclipsa fell into the water. 

"I believe in taking prisoners." 

Layers and layers of incredibly strong silken threads wrapped around Eclipsa. Squeezing her like a lime, especially around her hands. Causing more and more magic to seep from her body. Giving more energy to the threads. Making them squeeze tighter, and so on. 

Eclipsa gasped as she struggled with the ribbons. 

"It's too late now, you have to let it go. The more you struggle the worse it will get." Pauline explained. 

Eclipsa relaxed as she eased into nondual consciousness. Once she did that the toxicity began to bubble out of her more like a gas than a liquid. It was still more pain than she could take though. She passed out. 

After what seemed like an eternity the threads unwrapped and delivered Eclipsa softly and safely onto a pillow the size of an unusually large mattress. 

Pauline was sitting next to her now. 

"Are you okay?" Pauline asked. 

"I don't..." 

Eclipsa looked at herself. 

The magic was still seeping out of her. But it was barely noticeable now. The silken threads of the dimensions were dancing around her. Tickling the substance out further. 

Pauline said, "your memories are downloading into the dimension. There was a lot of magic bound up with them. Almost too much for this dimension to handle. I've been going over your memories and it seems like you had to watch your mother cast warnicorn stampede so many times that it caused your subconscious to write some kind of recursion spell to manifest your disapproval of this evil. Evil Warnicorns across spacetime! You're a rare bird, Eclipsa. Not everyone gets to survive having magic like this trapped in ones body for hundreds of years."

A ribbon manifested next to Pauline and began playing the memory of Eclipsa, strapped to her mother's chest while Solaria blasted the crap out of whole armies of monsters. 

So much death. 

So much fighting. 

Eclipsa began crying. 

Like she had never cried before. 

For an indeterminate period of time Pauline just held space for her. Eventually Eclipsa ran out of tears. Pauline asked one last thing. 

"There's one last thing I want to know about, Saint Crocus." 

"Saint Crocus?" 

"Yes, to be specific, the Knights of St. Crocus." 

"Knights? No, no St. Crocus was a treaty." 

"Oh? Go on please." 

"St. Crocus was my greatest diplomatic achievement. I went to Earth and negotiated a treaty with several governments there. Once the monster threat was brought under control, Earth would be integrated into the wider multiverse. Magic would be brought to Earth. But only once the monsters had been brought under control. Earth's governments wouldn't get involved in the affairs of the wider multiverse until all parties could negotiate with each other on an equal footing. Part of this was the establishment of St. Olga's. Knowledge from Earth would be used to maintain technological and cultural parity among the worlds of the wider multiverse until the monster problem was brought under control." 

Pauline replied, "well, that makes sense. That makes a lot of sense. But in my investigations it looks like three things happened. One, the monsters were never neutralized. For all intents and purposes, the war continued on until today. Two, the other governments in the multiverse that negotiated this treaty, and most of the Earth governments that were signatories fell to invasion or chaos and the treaty was forgotten. Three, and this is the part that I know you aren't going to like. Your daughter, Meteora was not allowed to take the throne of Mewni. The MHC and Shastacan could not allow a half monster queen to rule Mewni. So they handed Meteora over to St. Olga and after awhile she took over the academy." 

"Where she was in power almost the whole time I was gone... Shortening the lives of every girl who passed through." Eclipsa said in a distant tone. 

Pauline replied. "I'm sorry, it... It was like a reflex action or something. I released the remaining life force from her body that didn't belong to her." 

Eclipsa began to cry again until she stopped herself and asked. "What did Marco do to make her so upset?!" 

"He and Star were the ones who got too close to her game and shut her down." 

Eclipsa whispered, "ah... Glossarick. Where is Glossarick?" 

"I'm not sure, he vanished recently, all he left was a note saying that he was going to enter a race in Baja, Mexico." 

"He... He is on the run. Because he knows, he betrayed me." 

"Pardon?" 

Eclipsa clenched her fist. 

"Glossarick was the major architect of the treaty of St. Crocus. When I was crystallized Glossarick told me that I would have to wait until the treaty took effect. As soon as the treaty took effect, as soon as the conflict with the monsters ended, I would be released and I could live the rest of my life with Globgor and Meteroa. I didn't expect that it would take hundreds of years. I didn't expect Meteora to..." 

Sometime later a portal opened in Star's bedroom. Star was in her pajamas, about to go to sleep when Pauline staggered through, carrying an unconscious Eclipsa. 

Star noticed that Eclipsa's hands were looking much better. Star asked, "you're going to have to explain how you did that Starfa..." 

Star looked around. 

Pauline was gone.


	4. The devouring of Omnitraxus Prime.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pauline's investigation of the corruption of the Mewnian government and the Magical High Commission comes to a head.

Pauline staggered into the monster temple. 

She was mentally exhausted. Physically she was bursting with raw energy from the dimension of pillows. She wasn't sure what she was going to find in the temple. Then she found it. 

Globgor had been freed from crystal and murdered. His blood was still wet on the floor. Pauline examined the wounds around his neck. They were consistent with sword strikes. Pauline took out her camera and started taking photos of the crime scene. 

Something rattled behind her. 

Pauline drew her pistol. 

"Lekhmet?" 

"Miss Long." 

"You speak English now? I thought you only spoke in bleats?" 

"This is a telepathic illusion." 

"Okay, so you're in my head right now?" 

"Just far enough in to talk to you." 

"What is all this? Why leave Globgor alive all these years just to kill him now? Are you going to kill me too?" 

Lekhmet walked over to a nearby bench and sat down. 

"I'm not going to kill you. You might be our last hope to keep all this from collapsing." Lekhmet sighed and said, "I was created by Glossarick to manage entropy in the multiverse. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to manage entropy?" 

"I was under the impression that it was impossible." 

"It's not, but it's like working with mercury or some other incredibly poisonous substance. The longer you work with it the more it affects you. I've been working with entropy for a very long time. I'm dying, miss Long. There's no getting around that." 

"Do you want me to try to save you? Sever the links between you and entropy?" 

"I'm not sure if you could and if you did... I don't know what the consequences would be. Might destroy everything. Thank you for offering though." 

"Why are you here?" 

"I was waiting for you, or Eclipsa to show up. Omnitraxus knows you have the crystal pulverizing spell and that sooner or later one of you was going to show up here to free Globgor. So, Rhombulus did it first." 

"Did he decapitate Globgor or was it Omnitraxus?" 

"It was Moon. Omnitraxus, Moon and Rhombulus. Covering up their coverup." 

"You mean the dishonoring of Eclipsa and her legacy? Making her the queen of darkness?" 

"Oh it's even worse than that."

Lekhmet stretched out and said, "you see, there's something you don't understand about the monsters. Something that no one outside the MHC understands. Omnitraxus says that you have become a walking junction for several different timelines. With memories of yourself, Star and several others in other timelines. And we know you have read The Book. Somewhere in that mess do you have any memories of the founding of Mewni? Where the Mewnians come from?" 

"Yes, they were humans who came through the dimension of magic, from lost colonies of what became the United States. I saw Queen Moe receive the wand from Glossarick." 

"Do you remember what else was there?" 

"Uh, Reynaldo, baby Meteora and..." 

Pauline realized. 

"Alligators, probably hundreds of them. Swimming in a sea of golden magic." 

Lekhmet picked up a cup of tea that Pauline hadn't noticed was there and explained further. 

"The monsters were there before the colonists. Mewni should have been theirs. But for reasons that are long forgotten, even by me. Glossarick decided to side with the human colonists. He taught them how to use magic to defend themselves. The monsters and mewmans have been fighting ever since." 

"Why didn't Glossarick just return them back to Earth? Or have Hekapoo return them? And leave Mewni to the monsters?" 

"I don't know. It's... It's been so long that I've forgotten that too." 

"Why are you telling me this?" 

"Two reasons, one, sooner or later you would have found this all out for yourself. Two..." 

Pauline drew her pistol again. Queen Moon, Omnitraxus and Rhombulus appeared along with a dozen Royal Guards. 

"You would have seen through my lies. I needed to get this off my chest. If you survive this, tell Eclipsa I'm sorry." 

Lekhmet looked over at Rhombulus and Omnitraxus and said. "That's it, I'm done with all of this." 

He dissolved into dust and blew away on a soft breeze. 

The guards had Pauline surrounded. Moon was in full battle armor. They were moving around Pauline warily. Pauline addressed them. "You know who I am. What I am. You aren't attacking because you don't know what my capabilities are. Before we get going I just want to clarify one thing. Do you want to capture me and try to turn me to your side? Or are you here to kill me to cover up your crimes?" 

They said nothing. 

"Okay, that's all I needed to know." 

Pauline looked up at Omnitraxus and gestured for him to attack. 

He stomped forward and grabbed Pauline. As his hands enveloped her. Her wings came out. 

What happened next was a very curious thing to see. Pauline saw the entire vastness of what Omnitraxus was. She wasn't afraid of him. Not in the slightest. She had seen him be taken down several times in several different ways. 

Once she saw every single element of his existence she could control him. She allowed Kolibri to envelop him. Then Pauline and Kolibri tuned their bio energetic frequency to the exact opposite of Omnitraxus's energetic frequency. 

Pauline blasted through the roof of the monster temple and exploded. An explosion so big that it was seen all over Mewni. Then she fell back into the temple and started laughing insanely. 

The explosion had been an energetic ebb tide. As Omnitraxus's energy flooded into Pauline she felt two of the swords that made up Omnitraxus's horns fall into her hands. 

The Royal Guards attacked. 

They were moving as fast as they could. But to Pauline they were hopelessly slow. She made two tremendous slashes to her left and right. 

Four swords of the guards were chopped cleanly into pieces. Before they could react she grabbed the largest guard and used him as a projectile against the others. 

Between the already overpowered Kolibri and what she was taking from Omnitraxus, Pauline felt indestructible. 

Then Rhombulus opened up with his crystal beam. 

Pauline blocked with her left arm. Allowing a crystal shield to form around that arm. She dropped the sword in her left hand as Moon swooped in to attack in full butterfly mode. 

Pauline swiped the sword out of Moon's hand. The Mewnian vorpal blade being made of somewhat sterner stuff than a typical knights sword it stayed in one piece. However it went flying out of Moon's hands. 

Pauline saw her pistol dropped on the ground and cast levitato. Causing the pistol to fly into her hands. She smacked the swords that had once been part of Omnitraxus into the Pistol causing it to transform into a magical implement and aimed it at Rhombulus. Infusing it with a simple mathematical equation. 

"One kilogram tungsten sphere, traveling at one quarter the speed of light." 

Once she pulled the trigger Rhombulus and everything behind him simply ceased to exist. All that was left was a fading streak of superheated plasma. 

Pauline dropped the smoldering pistol. 

The guards were running for dear life. 

Moon was the sole remaining opponent. She staggered to her feet and tried to confront Pauline. 

Pauline felt nauseous for a moment. 

"Excuse me." 

Pauline retched. She threw up her breakfast and Omnitraxus's skull. She shook her left arm and allowed the crystal shield to slide off her wrist. She permitted the last remnants of Omnitraxus and Rhombulus to leave her energetic self as she went nondual. 

Moon looked scared. 

Pauline drank it in. And said in the loudest version of the nondual voice any version of her had ever spoken in. 

**"You haven't earned this. I know. I know what you have done with this. I know what you will do with this and you haven't earned this!"**

Moon cast a blasting spell at Pauline. Pauline deflected it and marched forward. She began making symmetrical gestures above Moon's chest. 

For Pauline it felt like it took hundreds of years. 

She had to unwind every single thread, every single connection. Every last fragment of magic within Moon's body. Magics that didn't even belong to Queen Moon. Magics that belonged to her ancestors going all the way back to Festivia. Pauline gestured in detail, through Moon's bones, her wings, her brain, her heart, her legs, her breasts, her sex. 

It dragged on and on. But Pauline knew that she had to be thorough. Not a single shred of magic could remain in this woman's body. She had seen what Moon had done with magic across several different timelines. She could not be trusted. 

For Moon it was all over in the blink of an eye. Pauline was moving faster than she could comprehend. The magic simply exploded from her in all directions from her body like a brilliant blue flare. 

Queen Moon was turned into a human. Her cheek marks were gone, as were her wings and all other magical modifications. Moon hit the ground like a rag doll and began to wail in agony. Moon simply did not understand what had just happened. It was something completely unprecedented and unknown. 

Pauline allowed the excess energies to shiver out of her wings. Returning them to the dimension of magic, to the zero point energy field. To the universe itself to be transformed and reborn. 

She picked up her pistol off the ground. It had been transformed from a fairly standard Beretta 92 to some kind of Beretta 92-Sig P210 hybrid. It now sported a magnificent blued finish with deep gold filled engraving. The slide had a beautiful engraving of a tree of life in a variety of colors. The pistol no longer had a slide mounted safety, it had a frame mounted safety that also functioned as a kind of magical throttle. A frame rail, ebony stocks and a much more comfortable grip than the old Beretta. 

Pauline took out her dimensional scissors and cut a portal to her backyard. Leaving Moon to limp back home with her guards. 

Pauline looked around her backyard. She dropped the magazine and found the standard Beretta 92 magazine was still full of typical hollow-point 9mm bullets. She asked. 

"Good lord Kolibri! Where the heck did this come from?" 

Kolibri materialized, she explained. "That's what your wand would have been if you hadn't come to your senses. It looks pretty cool, doesn't it?" 

"Yeah, but... How am I going to explain this to Dad? This is his gun, not mine." 

Kolibri shrugged and said, "it's still the same gun, technically and legally speaking. Same serial number and everything. Just explain to him that it's been made awesome." 

Pauline sighed and staggered into her home. It was late at night. She put the gun in a drawer next to her bed and passed out.


	5. The closed circle.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pauline continues her cleanup of the crises that the Butterfly family have wrought on the wider multiverse.

There was a boom. The sound of a front door being blown off its hinges. 

Pauline woke up to the sound of feet clomping up her stairs. Pauline grabbed the pistol and prepared for what was coming. 

The door to her bedroom opened. Star pointed the wand at her and shouted. "What the hell did you do to Eclipsa and my mother!?" 

Pauline stretched out her hand. The wand flew out of Star's hands and stuck to the ceiling. Pauline explained. "Still a little foggy as to what I've done to Eclipsa. But I know exactly what I did to your mother. I de powered her... But only after she tried to kill me."

Eclipsa came running up saying, "Star, calm down! for the love of corn! don't piss her off! You have no idea what you're dealing wi..." 

Eclipsa looked up at the wand stuck to the ceiling and said, "never mind." Star pointed her finger at Pauline's chin and growled. "You left my mother and those knights at the temple. It took them hours to get back to the castle. But that's not even the weirdest thing. Dad brought me back to Mewni. Mom figured that all she needed was to hold the wand again to restore her abilities... This thing turned into a baby rattle in her hands!" 

"A... Baby rattle?" Pauline asked. 

"A rattle, a completely inert, nonmagical rattle. I can use the wand, apparently Eclipsa can still use the wand. But Mom can't!" 

"Ah, the lockout spell worked then." 

"Lockout spell?" 

"Magical concept I've been playing around with. Imagine a gun, this gun can only be fired by someone with the correct fingerprint, pressing their fingers against the grip of the gun. My lockout spell works the same way, except it reads energy spectra. Queen Moon is completely, totally and permanently locked out of using the wand forever. Probably from ever accessing the realm of magic ever again either. But... Look, Star. Is your mother still alive?" 

"Yes." 

"Is she in incredible pain?" 

"No." 

"Is she trapped in a crystal?" 

"No." 

"Is she still Queen of Mewni?" 

"Yeah." 

"Well then she's luckier than her victims. How about you ask your mother what happened to Globgor?" 

"Globgor?!" Star and Eclipsa asked simultaneously. 

"Glob-gor, look, we talked awhile ago about how your mother and the MHC have been lying to you and everyone else about a lot of very important things. And one of those things is Globgor and the monsters. Eclipsa, I'm really really, really sorry about this." 

Pauline got her camera out and showed them the pictures of Globgor's murdered body. Pauline continued. "I've seen what you both are capable of. But I've also seen what kind of people you are. And right now I'm going to have to ask you both a favor." 

Eclipsa had a look on her face that was difficult to describe. It was a knowing, a knowing that she was about to be asked something of gravest importance. 

Pauline put the gun down and got out of bed. She was still dressed from last night. 

"Eclipsa, you don't have to do anything. For what little it's worth I'm sorry that I had to unravel your daughter. But she had a life that went on for centuries. She had a good run, in that sense of the word. Globgor was being held in crystal at the monster temple. I went to go check on him and I found that Rhombulus and Omnitraxus had de crystallized and killed him. Lekhmet... Lekhmet explained everything and he apologized, to you personally before he died. Right after that, Moon, her guards, Omnitraxus and Rhombulus attacked me. I de powered Moon and I think I straight up killed Omni and Rhombulus." 

Eclipsa staggered backwards and leaned against a wall. She looked at her healed hands again and said quietly. "Okay... I think I've had enough now." 

Pauline got off the bed and prepared for combat. 

Eclipsa drew a pair of dimensional scissors and said, "I'm done with Mewni. I'm done with all of this. I'm going to go find Glossarick and kill him. And then I never want to hear about any of this ever again." 

Eclipsa made a portal and walked through it. Once Eclipsa left the wand fell down from the ceiling, into Paulines hands. 

"Hey?! What are you doing with that?" Asked Star. 

"Just checking something." 

Pauline stared at the wand across every energy spectrum, down to the subatomic level. "Oh great... An algae planet or two. I think there's one last thing I need to do. You saying the wand turned into a rattle was kind of a red flag. Do you want to come with me, Star?" 

"I'm not letting you leave with that." Star replied. 

"Very good." 

Pauline unloaded the pistol and handed it to Star, saying. "Hold on to that for me while I'm using the wand." Pauline took out her dimensional scissors and made a portal to an alleyway behind a Mewni market. 

After they went through the portal Star asked. "What are we doing here?" 

"Well, I could be dropping you back off in Mewni so you can take care of your mother who I so horribly mutilated last night. Or we could be doing something far more important than that. I think something wants me to plug a hole in the spacetime continuum." 

"What kind of a hole?" Asked Star. 

Pauline looked around the market. She didn't say anything until she found a stall that sold a variety of baby rattles. But none of them quite matched what she was looking for. She asked the vendor if he had anything that matched a certain design... 

She showed him the wand in its most plain rattle configuration. 

The vendor nodded and said, "one like that... That's... Kinda freaky. Is... this what you're looking for? I just carved it today." 

Pauline examined the rattle. Holding one in each hand the frequencies matched perfectly. "Yes this was exactly what I was looking for." Pauline paid the vendor and started walking towards the sanctuary right after she gave Star the wand back. 

"What... Um... What's that rattle for?" Asked Star. 

"Because this isn't just any rattle. This is the wand, you can go home now." 

"Um... StarFan... This is the wand." 

"That is the wand now... This is the wand then, or at least it will be the wand then... When it gets to then... Zathras... Zathras... Not sure when that will be... Until Zathras get there. But Zathras got to get there first. Either way..." 

Pauline made a dimensional portal back to The Diaz Families backyard on Earth. 

Star asked firmly. "What are you going to do with that rattle... StarFan!?" 

Pauline took her gun back and said, "listen, Star, I'm... About to do something really fucking dangerous and if you come with me you have to do whatever I say with no hesitation whatsoever. I'm not sure what's going to happen, but if we fuck this up then we might be looking at a massive, potentially universe ending paradox. This is simply more important than either of us now. So you are welcome to go down this pathway. You know it runs right to the castle. You can go through this portal, back to Earth. Or you can stay with me and you might wind up dying of... Something. Once this is all over I'll fill you in." 

"No... No I... I don't know what's going on here but magical adventures are my thing! not yours! You're probably going to need my help." Star replied. 

"Okay, suit yourself." Pauline said as she closed the portal and started walking. 

"Where are we going?" Star asked. 

"The Magic Sanctuary." 

"How do you... Oh right, you read the book. What are we going to do there?" 

"I'm not completely sure yet, but before we get there..." 

Pauline checked her pockets. She still had a camera, a cell phone and some money. She stashed the phone and money in a hollow tree on the way to the sanctuary and told Star to empty her pockets. Pauline didn't want to run the risk of leaving an anachronistic object in the past. Once they were both clean they started off towards The Sanctuary. Pauline tried to fill in Star on what they were doing on the way there as much as she could. 

When they got to the shore where the sanctuary would rise from Pauline took the wand back from Star and said, "cover your ears, this is going to be loud." 

Pauline dipped. 

She dipped as far as she had ever dipped before and shouted out a single word. A word so loud that it seemed to shake the entire planet. 

"Reynaldo!!!" 

Star took her fingers out of her ears and asked, "who's Reynaldo?" 

Stairs emerged from the ground. 

"That's Reynaldo. The lost member of the MHC." 

The stoic, toga wearing giraffe stood at the top of the stairs silently. He had a look of stunned surprise in his face. Pauline walked up to him and said. "Don't say anything. Just nod your head if you are still cursed to only speak in riddles." 

He did so. 

Pauline stared at him and said. "Okay, I'm going to try something. I hope this will work. Head, bald, Reynaldo's!" 

A bubbling golden energy erupted from the wand and washed around Reynaldo for a moment then dissolved. 

He stood there silently. 

"Speak." 

"I don't think I... I... I... I'm not... I'm... Oh... Oh my... I! I can speak normally again!" 

Reynaldo hugged Pauline and then started running up and down the shore exclaiming. "I can speak! I can speak! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" 

He stopped and said, "oh crap, it's you. Okay... Let's get this over with. Actually, no... No there's just one thing I haven't learned yet. What happened to Glossarick?" 

"I'm not sure about that. I'm pretty sure that Eclipsa swore a blood oath against him of some sort."

Reynaldo hung his head and said, "so, the time has come for us to pay for our sins. What if I don't take you to the past?" 

"Hey... This universes true lord of entropy said what he said. And then he died." 

Pauline took the rattle out, took her gun back from Star's belt and said. "I mean... If I blast this rattle to kingdom come... Am I blasting a rattle? A wand? Or an entire universe?" 

Pauline put the gun away. 

"But seeing as how I am not insane enough to threaten to destroy my own plane of existence. For the sake of that plane of existences continued existence. Will you please take us back to the day before queen Moe landed on this shore? Or am I going to have to find alternate transport?" 

"Follow me please." 

Star and Pauline went down the stairs, after a short ferry ride they emerged at the specific time. But things didn't look right. There was no golden magic and no alligators. Pauline realized something. "You had to get Glossarick to do his job... Didn't you?" 

Reynaldo shrugged dismissively and then retreated into his tunnel. 

Nothing looked different. Except there were a few more trees. 

Pauline was the first to notice it. 

Nothing made any sense anymore. 

"What? It's just a tree. Why do you look so shocked?" Star asked. 

"No, no you don't understand. It's a tree but it's supposed to be... The Stump." 

"The Stump? As in... The Stump?" 

"Yes, but, wait, no. Now that I think about it that doesn't make sense. The stump was clearly cut by a metal blade. That would suggest that there was someone here before..." 

"Opsu, upsula!" 

"What the?" 

"Hide!" 

Pauline and Star ran and hid behind some rocks. 

Two burly, bearded men with a team of harnessed donkeys walked up and laid their hands on the tree. They were speaking a language that neither Star or Pauline recognized. But it sounded Scandinavian. They were examining the tree for harvest. A third and fourth man showed up with a large steel saw and they all started sawing through the tree. Quickly and efficiently the Lumberjacks felled the tree, chopped off the largest branches and used the donkeys to haul it away. 

Pauline and Star emerged from their hiding spot, Star asked. "So, what's... What's going on here? Are we still in Mewni?" 

"Yes, yes we are." 

Kolibri materialized. 

"Gah! Who the hell? Britney?" 

"Kolibri actually, nice to finally meet you miss Butterfly." She said as she extended her hand for a handshake. As they shook hands Pauline asked. "So do you have any idea what's going on here?" 

"Unfortunately yes, and you're not going to like it. Follow me please." 

As they started walking along behind the path of the Lumberjacks, Kolibri explained as well as she could. 

"So, we have established that magic flows like liquid across the multiverse from places of high pressure to places of low pressure, right?" 

"Right." Pauline replied. 

"And after our little carousel stunt the magical pressure is equalizing between Earth, the realm of magic and the rest of the multiverse, right?" 

"Right." 

As they came over a rise they saw a complex of villages. Kolibri manifested as a set of cloaks over Star and Pauline's backs. 

"Who are these people? They don't look quite like Mewnians." Star asked. 

"Well, that's because they aren't Mewnians." Explained Kolibri. 

As they wandered through the village they saw a culture that was a curious blending of several west coast Native American societies and Viking culture. Though the technology they were using was a skosh more advanced than either. This was a society that was clearly just on the cusp of an industrial revolution. They had steam engines and clocks. An alligator motif was prominent in their artworks. As the girls walked back to the coast they stood next to the stump looking out at the sea. Pauline observed.. 

"Well, that was one of the most fascinating cultures I've ever seen. Unfortunately... it's all going to be destroyed." 

"What?!" Star asked. 

"Yep, and here comes doomsday now." 

Pauline pointed out at the Mewnian sea. A tiny trickle of golden magic was erupting from the sea bottom. 

"Oh no. No..." Said Star. 

"Yeah." 

"What!?!" Star asked. 

"Star, the memories I saw that led us here. This whole area was bathed in magic. There was no way that the tiny boat with a handful of people in it could have become Mewnian civilization. It wasn't enough people to get through the genetic bottleneck. If it had just been the people on that boat... Mewni... Something is going to happen today that will cause the civilization that is currently here to become Mewni." 

"What?" Asked Star. 

Pauline pointed out to the sea. Larger and larger globs of golden magic had bubbled to the surface. 

"Pressure equalizing... I... caused this." 

Pauline fell to her knees. 

"I did everything I could to clean out the contaminants. But even with the contaminants packed onto airships drifting through space there was still too much pressure. The pressure is going to have to be relieved and this is the only place I know of in the multiverse where a magical eruption like this happened." Pauline explained. 

"Where's the nearest high ground?" Pauline asked. 

Star pointed to a cliff. "We should be safe there. Summoning Cloudy charm!" 

Cloudy appeared from the wand and flew them both up to the cliff. Even in the air she could feel it. 

It was like nothing she had ever seen before. Nothing she had ever imagined. As they landed on the cliff the eruption commenced. The most unbelievably powerful deluge of golden magic imaginable exploded all over what would become Mewni. 

After several hours the eruption began to subside. A single rowboat came burbling out of the last dregs of the blast. Carrying five people. 

"Okay, let's go meet your ancestors." Pauline said as they got back on Cloudy. 

"Where are we? Who are we?" 

"Okay... You are the colonists of Mewni. A simple, honorable people with dreams of prosperity and... Corn. You there, Moe, catch." 

Pauline tossed the rattle to her. It transformed into exactly the form of the wand that Pauline was expecting. 

"Congratulations, you can do magic with that. Oh, you should also have this." 

Pauline tossed a paper bag full of envelopes of seeds. "There... I suggest you start with the heirloom seed corn. But there's lots of other good seeds in there as well. Plant the corn in shallow soil, preferably with fish bones. Good luck." 

Stairs manifested. 

"Come on Star, let's get out of here." 

They went with Reynaldo back to modern Mewni. 

"Star, please don't tell anyone about this." 

"Don't tell anyone? I don't even know what the heck that was?!" 

"That was an attempt on my part to not fuck with time anymore than its already been fucked with." Pauline cut a portal back to Earth and said, "look, Reynaldo and Hekapoo are probably going to reconstitute the Magical High Commission. I'm going back to Earth to try to make sense of what we just went through. You should try to talk some sense into your mother. Don't tell her anything about what we just did. Oh, but I do need you to deliver a message to her for me." 

Star nodded. 

Pauline looked down at the wand in Star's hand one last time. And retrieved the money and phone she had left in the hollow tree. 

"Tell her that if she ever wants to talk to me ever again she had better send you out waving a huge white flag. And if she tries to kill me again... Well... Let's just not give her the satisfaction... Shall we?" 

Pauline stepped through the portal.


	6. Love and jealousy.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jackie has questions about the other timelines. Pauline attempts to find answers while her and Jackie watch a movie with Jackie's aunt.

A portal opened in Jackie's backyard. 

Pauline staggered through it and collapsed onto the lawn, smelling the grass for awhile. Eventually Jackie saw her and came to get her, shouting. "You've gone completely off the rails! I mean, you send me barreling down a mountain and then you just... Hey, are you alright, dude?" 

"Physically I'm fine. But I think I might have fucked up big time." 

"Fucked up how?" 

"I'm... Not sure really. But I created circumstances that led to Eclipsa Butterfly accidentally killing her own daughter. Killed Omnitraxus Prime and Rhombulus, turned Moon Butterfly into a magic-less human. Inadvertently triggered the destruction of a civilization... Created Mewnian civilization and then..." 

".. Geeze!" Jackie replied. 

"But we can talk about that later. What do you want to talk about?" 

"No no no, first... Okay, I have an idea how you would have turned Moon into a magic-less human. Killing Omnitraxus and Rhombulus. Okay, I can see that happening. But... Meteora? Um... Mind if we go inside first?" Asked Jackie. 

Pauline raised her arms and asked, "can you carry me?" 

Jackie smiled and picked Pauline up. Pauline kicked her legs in the air and said, "anyone ever tell you that you're really good at carrying people?" 

"Not in those exact words. So. I was wondering if we could talk about what we saw in Wisconsin?" 

"Yeah, that seems like a good idea." Replied Pauline. 

Jackie carried Pauline to her bedroom, dropped her on her bed and said, "I've been thinking about this for days now and it doesn't make any sense. I mean, those weren't my memories we were looking at, or yours." 

"No, they were Star's." 

"Why were we looking at Star's memories?"

"Because Star is usually the one holding the wand." 

Jackie exhaled and observed. "Okay, that makes sense. But... When I saw myself in her memories what I saw didn't make sense." 

"What do you mean it didn't make any sense?" 

"The other version of you we saw in Wisconsin was just... you. Or at least the you that you used to be. Combined with the you that you will become. Who is able to use Star as a magic wand... Pretty distinct bit of symmetry there. That other me, in that vision, I don't think that was me. First of all her chest was way flatter than mine and... she went to France. Why would I got to France? I have no connections, no family there. And apparently that other me came back with some French parkour chick? I wasn't even into girls until you... Started chasing me and I'm damn sure that..." 

Pauline looked at Jackie... Somewhat askance. 

"That I'm not into parkour." 

"You're not?" 

"I'm really not. I think it's... Overexposed, overused, overhyped. I kinda liked parkour the first fifty times I saw it, but now? I mean... Those memories were like watching someone who didn't know anything about me playing me on tv. It was so fucking cliched! 'Oh, she's into skateboarding, so she must be into parkour as well." 

"I don't know. Maybe it's not supposed to make sense. Maybe it's nothing, perhaps we are overthinking things that happened in some other timeline. Things that can't happen now. I mean... They needed the sum total of the welled up toxic magics inside the bodies of Moon, Star, Meteora and Eclipsa to pull that off. Meteora is dead... Again, Eclipsa is cleaned up. Moon is depowered and Star... Well, sooner or later we are going to have to unwind her energetically. But let's save that for later." 

Jackie exhaled, leaned back and asked. "Do you have any connections to France?" 

"Yes actually... I have a friend who lives on a farm outside Paris. Emily Lavoisier. Her father and my mother are friends, work friends, fellow physicists. We met at a conference that our parents attended some years ago. We still talk every couple of weeks."

"Huh. You've never mentioned her before." Replied Jackie. 

"No reason to, she's more of a long distance acquaintance than a friend." Pauline took out her phone and cued up a picture. Jackie looked at it and said, "holy... Wow, she looks just like you, but without glasses and blonde hair." 

"Yeah, she's kinda weird though." 

"Kinda weird?" 

"Yeah, she's... She's a bad influence, I suppose. She's always trying to talk me into criminal activity. But she's not like Janna. She doesn't do crook stuff herself. She just tries to talk me into doing it. She always wants me to take these insane risks." 

Jackie leaned back and thought for a moment. 

"You're keeping something from me." Pauline asserted. "You wanted me to read your mind, well we're reading your mind now and we sense you are keeping something from us..." 

"Okay, fine! There is one person. My aunt Matilda. She was born in France."

"Okay, tell me about her." 

"Honestly it would be easier if... Hm... I have to make some arrangements. Go home and wait for me."

Pauline got up and said, "okay." 

Jackie smiled and slammed the door behind Pauline as she exited the room. 

Hours went by until Pauline got a text from Jackie. "Coming to pick you up. Wear something formal." 

Not having much else in the way of formal wear, Pauline put on her white suit for the first time in awhile. She felt much more comfortable in it than she had the last time she had worn it. She knew now that it was simply an article of clothing. She defined what it meant to her. Not the other way around. 

Waiting in front of her house Pauline saw a black Lincoln town car pull up. Jackie opened the door and said, "well, come on, get in." 

Pauline was stunned. 

Jackie had changed her hairstyle again. It was much... Flatter now. She was also dressed in a conservative but very attractive dark red dress. 

Pauline got in the back seat with Jackie. 

"What!?" Jackie snapped. 

"Nothing! It's just... You look great." 

"Yeah, thanks. You couldn't have picked something girlier?" 

"You said formal and this is the most formal thing I own." 

"Okay, fine. I suppose this will work." 

Pauline looked at the driver of the town car. An average looking white guy with thinning blonde hair in his late 20s. 

"That's Eric, he's my aunts caretaker." 

Pauline and Jackie were fairly silent for the short drive to the most fancy neighborhood in Echo Creek. Jackie seemed really nervous and that made Pauline nervous. 

They pulled into the driveway of a very fancy looking three story house. 

Eric led them inside. 

The walls were lined with family portraits, taxidermied animals and the occasional newspaper clipping. Mostly dealing with advances in telecommunications technology. In the central lounge of the house was a little old lady watching a big screen tv. 

"Jackie! Finally decided to come visit? Give me a hug." Exclaimed the old lady. 

Jackie went over and hugged her. "This is my friend Pauline." 

Pauline extended her hand for a handshake. Matilda pulled her into a hug. 

Aunt Matilda looked at Jackie seriously and asked. "So, what can I do you for?" 

"Pauline and I are thinking of going to France on vacation this summer and we were wondering if you could offer us some advice on what to do there?" 

"I suppose I could help with that. But only if you answer a question. How are you not yourself?" 

"Pardon me?" 

"You know uncle Zane died a few months ago?" 

"Yeah." Replied Jackie. 

"His last words were, 'how are you not yourself?' I had no idea what he meant. Eric did some research for me and discovered that it was a line in a movie. I was just about to watch that movie when you called saying that you wanted to come over. I'll tell you all I know about France if you watch this movie with me."

"That depends, is it four hours long?" Asked Jackie. 

"No, a little less than two." 

"I think we have time." Said Pauline. 

"Ah, she speaks!" Matilda grabbed the remote and cued up the movie. 

"I heart Huckabee's?" Asked Jackie. 

"Ever seen it?" Asked Matilda. 

Pauline and Jackie let out a synchronized "nope."

A little less than 2 hours later. 

"Interesting." Observed Pauline. 

"Interesting how?" Asked Matilda. 

"Well, that was probably the most disgusting sex scene I have ever seen in my life. Thank god it was short. I mean, when Jackie picked me up I wasn't expecting... Well, whatever that was."

"What do you think... it was?" Asked Matilda. 

"Well it was all very metaphorical, but the set design suggested a machine to me." Replied Pauline. 

"A machine?" Asked Matilda. 

"Yeah, the backgrounds. When you see the chalkboard in Hoffman's' office I see those squares on a chalkboard to be like portals to another realm. Although portals in the sense that a cheese grater is a portal for cheese. Then you see Brad's office and its configured with a similar backdrop to the chalkboard pattern. But much more solid. Then you see the bathroom and the grey portals have become hard gray squares. Then you see Brads BMW upside down and that's just one more part of the giant machine whose function is to break down the bad guy into nothing. Finally we have Brad in that photo, standing in a field. Like the tooth of a saw blade. He has become the machine, cutting into the illusion of the American Dream. I admit that I have had large machines on the brain lately. But that's what I saw." Pauline explained. 

"Interesting. I just figured that it was a story of a stock corporate villain getting what he had coming to him. Do you think Vauban intended to turn him into a machine? Or part of the machine? A cutting tool?" 

"Perhaps... Especially when she was chanting, 'creation, destruction,' that's how it looked to me." Replied Pauline. 

"Tell me, of all the characters in that movie. Which one did you identify with the most?" Asked Matilda. 

"Which one did you identify with?" Asked Pauline. 

"The electrician. For all the talk about helping people and saving the Earth. He and his family were the ones actually going out there, building civilization and saving Sudanese orphans. You?" 

"Vauban is the obvious answer. So I'm going to say Vauban. But I'm not that nihilistic, or that much of a slut." Replied Pauline. 

"Oh, why do you say she was a slut?" Asked Matilda. 

"The sex scene."

Matilda shrugged and said. "A slut perhaps, but one who prefers to seduce the innocent rather than going off with some big handsome dude like Walhberg's character." Matilda looked at Jackie for a moment and said, "you wouldn't know anything about that now would you?" 

Pauline turned and said to Jackie. "You know I really like your aunt. How come you're so silent over there? Tell us, did you connect with any of the characters in this movie?" 

"Ah... The fireman, Whalberg." Replied Jackie. 

"Really? Him? The nihilistic environmentalist? How do you square that circle?" Asked Pauline. 

"Well, Whalberg's character was obviously insane. Which is fine for someone going through a divorce. But yeah, squaring that circle, if nothing matters, if the universe is nothing but emptiness. We live for nothing and we die for nothing... Why care about the environment or oil? Never mind that if you are a fireman and you stop to make out with someone instead of rescuing them from a burning building you're just a complete... Ah fuuuu..." Jackie hesitated. 

Pauline and Matilda were looking at her with smug expressions. They didn't need to say anything. 

Jackie remained silent. 

Over the course of the next hour or two. Pauline, Jackie and Matilda discussed France. Matilda's birth in Normandy. Her early career as a secretary for a chemistry firm. Her eventual marriage to an American who worked in a laboratory for Pacific Bell. And his recent death from cancer.

Matilda described their first meeting. In a bar in Picardy, Amiens. They had both separately just gone through rough breakups. Talking led to drinking, drinking led to... more talking. Yet more talking led from there to a decades long relationship. 

"I miss Zane every day. It's not easy trying to move on from that. Somedays I think it might be a good idea to take down these pictures of him. But when I try to do it I find I don't have the strength to do it."

"You feel as though he is holding you back from something? If so then what?" Asked Pauline. 

"I don't know. Perhaps I am just waiting for something to point me in a different direction." 

"What direction do you want to go?" Asked Jackie. 

"I really don't know." Matilda replied. "I'm probably too old and broken down at this point to go anywhere further than the grocery store." 

She absentmindedly started rotating a bottle of pills in her hand.

"Zane was a good man, but a little too strict for Jackie's father and thus too strict for Jackie. Perhaps he left us at just that time for just this reason. I don't know, I'm just glad that we're able to talk now." 

"Your aunt is really interesting, Jackie." 

Later on Matilda made arrangements for Pauline and Jackie to stay at a relatives apartment while they were in France. Jackie and Pauline elected to walk home instead of having Eric take them back. While they walked Jackie asked. "Okay, Meteora. What happened there?" 

Pauline asked, "you don't sound as upset about that as I would have expected." 

"As... Fucked up as it may sound. I'm glad you killed her and Toffee." 

Pauline blinked. "You are?" 

"Yes I am. You saved me the trouble." 

"You... Would have killed them?" 

"I did kill them. Well, not me... Some other Me's. I'm pretty sure I've seen more alternate timelines and different realities than you have, there's one where I killed Toffee and a few where I killed Meteora. She... She really was toxic..." 

Jackie had a look on her face of utter rage. 

"Meteora isn't Hitler. Shes not that smart and doesn't have as much self control. I've watched myself fight her and lose. Having her blood on my hands... After what I've seen its no more upsetting to me than taking out the garbage. And I like taking out the garbage. It's something that needs to be done. No matter what reality, what timeline, what circumstances. That bitch is irredeemable. There's something rotten at the very core of her being. You know the old nature-nurture argument? Meteora... Yes she had a messed up childhood. She had a variety of messed up childhoods. But even if she had a good childhood her father was Globgor. Which means that she would always have this desire to eat other human beings. A compulsion, a drive that can only be suppressed. It can't be done away with. And you know what? I'm one of those people who can justify cannibalism if there's no other option. Meteora... In all her forms, in all her variations. Draws her power from cannibalism of some sort, so..." 

Jackie's tone went from angry to cheerful. She kissed Pauline on the cheek and asked. "How did you take her out?" 

"Well, it wasn't me it was Kolibri... And Eclipsa... technically. Kolibri reached into Meteora's chest and broke out the remaining sprit fragments inside Meteora's body. She got really old really fast... Then... I took her to see Eclipsa, she explained nothing and then tried to kill Marco." 

Jackie started walking behind Pauline with her arms around her neck. Pauline shook herself free and exclaimed. "Stay away from me! Why! I mean... Why are you so cool with this?" 

Jackie stood there for a moment and quoted the movie they had just seen. "Stop! Look! Listen! Throughout infinity energy recycles into every possible relation... to everyone else's energy, even Brad's. You've been predator and prey with him. Friends, enemies, brother, sister, mother, child.' But that's Brad, what defined Meteora's existence is that she cut herself off from this process. She chose to remain as she was at the expense of others. Pauline, let me repeat myself. If you and Eclipsa hadn't killed Meteora then I would have had to. Or Star would have, or Marco would have. You know this as well as I do. You've seen it with your own eyes. We both saw Eclipsa strike Meteora with the intent to kill in that timeline we saw in Wisconsin and if it hadn't been for some absolute magical bullshit pulled on the part of some... Godlike entity in that timeline we are all split off from... That she should have died. But instead the fucking Bullshit Ray! Turns her into a baby. A baby that still wanted to kill Marco... She did die... Didn't she?" 

"Turned to fucking dust." 

Jackie wrapped her arms around Pauline and whispered. "So thank you, thank you and thank Kolibri for sparing me and Eclipsa from that. I don't want to become a killer."

Pauline hugged her back and changed the subject. "So... what's the real reason why you identified with Wahlberg's character? The reason you couldn't say in front of your aunt? It's because he was like... The best looking guy in the movie, right?" 

Jackie let go and switched from being over emotional to a rather detached tone as she replied. "When Vauban and Schwartzman went off together. Wahlberg asked if he could go with. They say no and he's all heartbroken until he catches up with Mrs Stock Corporate Bad Guy. I wanted to see Vauban and Schwartzman say yes. I think it would have been hot. Or failing that... Something less disgusting than what we saw." 

"Ah, still have polyamory on the brain?" 

"Well so what if I do!?" Jackie snapped. 

"Whoa, why so angry?" Pauline felt like she was about to attempt disarming a bomb. "Jackie, I love you. I've made that very clear, haven't I?" 

"Yes." 

"You've also made it very clear that you... lean more towards heterosexuality than I do. Is there some guy you're interested in? someone you worked up the nerve to ask their name? Do you want to be in a relationship with this guy and me?" 

Jackie looked really pensive. They walked together in silence. Pauline allowed herself to listen as deeply as she ever had. As she did so dots connected. 

"Wait a minute. It's not a guy. It's... Oh good grief! You want to see if Star has a thing for you?" 

Jackie chuckled. "I'm really starting to regret letting you read my mind." 

Pauline asked, "why? I mean I never saw you have that kind of interest in Star before." 

Jackie replied, "its that second darkest timeline. You know, the one where I hook up with Star and Marco. "

"Ah, the one where you act like a really big idiot? 

"Yep... That... One." 

"Yeah well... that wasn't you! Isn't that what you said to me after I was force fed that vampire?" 

"This is different."

"How? enlighten me."

"I think I'm tired of being a goody two shoes. I've seen good me's and bad me's and I'm tired of being treated like a side character in my own story. I don't want to be the multiverses plaything. I'm tired of being everyones perfect little smiling fuck doll!" 

Pauline was getting spooked. She had never seen Jackie act like this before. Jackie continued. "I'm an archetype too. I'm... Im the hero. The perfect hero. Or at least close enough to perfect as can be found. I'm Apollo, or Achilles. The perfect blonde sex goddess who always saves the day and looks good doing it. I will never live up to that. I refuse to live up to that." 

Pauline gently laid a hand on Jackie's shoulder and observed. "You aren't blonde anymore." 

"What's that got to do with anything?" 

Pauline playfully ran a finger through Jackie's hair and said, "you... aren't... blonde! You changed your hair color. Therefore you aren't that archetype of the handsome blonde hero anymore." 

"Then what am I?" 

"I don't know, you're the only one who can answer that. What do you want to be?" 

Jackie replied quietly, "I want... I want to be in control." 

"Okay, that's fine. In control of what?" 

Jackie let go and said, "My life!" 

"Okay, how are you going to go about that? Go to college? Get an MBA? Start a business?" 

"That's such a you answer." Jackie said as she shuffled away. 

Pauline shrugged, caught up to her and said, "perhaps. But if that isn't the answer then what is? I thought we were discussing polyamory. Not being in charge of ones life... I mean, after years of watching harem genre anime, well. No one in those sorts of relationships is in charge in those stories. It's just random chaos. Mainly because the... Dominant male hasn't asserted his position and marked his territory." 

"Fucking gross!" Jackie shouted. 

"Yeah, there's a reason for that. Jackie... look. I'm not into polyamory. I've made that... abundantly clear! Why are you into it? Is it because it's something you're genuinely interested in? If so then in what... Configuration would you prefer?" 

Jackie started walking again and said. "Im not a sex fiend like you are. I love you. Why can't we expand on that? Why aren't you into it? In this timeline, in this reality... I get it. You and Star are done... you beat up her mother. There's no coming back from that... I think. But I gave you the option to date Star, why didn't you take it?" 

"Jealousy." Replied Pauline. 

"Jealousy?" 

"Jealousy. Jackie, I... I understand that you gave me that out and I really do appreciate it. But here's the thing. And this is going to sound creepy but when you offered me that out I thought. 'This is great! I can have you and Star.' Then I started doing homework on polyamory. It's not a new thing, people have been doing it in some form or another for thousands of years and jealousy always comes up. If I were dating you and Star then she would have gotten jealous of you. And there's a possibility that you would have gotten jealous of her." 

"No I wouldn't have. Jealousy is for old people." 

Pauline let the words sit for awhile, then started walking backwards to show Jackie her face to express her sincerity. "Okay... For now let's say that you are someone who has somehow evolved past jealousy. Even if you have... Let's face it, you're better looking than Star. I think we have... Well established by now that Star is a violent person. Wether it was me between the two of you or Marco between the two of you, sooner or later Star would have probably maimed you and taken me, or Marco for herself. You've seen more different timelines than I have. You might be able to trust... Yourself not to get jealous. Maybe... And let's say that because I have Kolibri that I won't get jealous... Let's say it was me, you and Star. And please be honest. Do you think it would work out over the long term?" 

Jackie sighed and said. "No." 

Pauline kept walking backwards. "Same rules, you, Star and Marco?" 

Jackie weighed the evidence. She didn't refer to it as the second darkest timeline for nothing. 

"No." 

"Well, we've established that Marco isn't willing to be in a relationship with you and me. So, what about You, me... And Britney?" 

Jackie chuckled a little at that and said. "Hell no!" 

Pauline started walking normally again. They walked in silence for awhile until Jackie asked in a quiet voice. 

"You think the concept of polyamory is flawed? Do you really think that we can't get past jealousy? That's such a backward thing." 

Pauline smiled, thinking to herself. _"Well, at least she's asking the right questions."_ "Yeah... I think it's a bad idea. Even if we could somehow take jealousy out of the equation, there's other problems. History is full of examples of men who had harems of various sorts. They had power, they had wealth and so they accumulated women to... Serve them. Those relationships were clear examples of the subjugation of women. There's much fewer examples of women who had power and who had... Harems of men. But that never worked out either because, well. If you think girls get jealous of other girls. Guys are... Well. Let's just say they are wired differently. Girls tend to just limit it to snarky comments or attempts to psychologically destroy each other. Boys will get into fistfi..." 

"You're missing a point here. You're not a boy and neither am I!" Jackie interrupted. 

"No... I'm not, and I'm not going to claim to be the one who wears the pants in this relationship either. But it all comes back to jealousy. Love... Love is many things. In my... Philosophy, it's the thing that makes up all of creation. When two people are in love they need to be able to melt into each other and if you were in a romantic relationship with someone else... Apparently, I'd have a voice in the back of my head wondering if you really loved me or if you loved that other person more." 

"What about Kolibri?" 

"What about her? She's me, just... my subconscious." 

"She has Britney's face, you said it yourself. It's kinda weird." 

"She does and it is. Are you saying that technically you are already in a poly relationship with me and her? If so, are you... Jealous of Kolibri?" 

Jackie stopped walking and hid her face against a streetlamp. 

"Your thoughts are more muddled to yourself than they are to me right now, aren't they?" Said Pauline calmly. 

Jackie continued to look away. Pauline sat down on some grass and left things in silence. She could just see her house in the distance, a short walk away. 

"Do you want me to leave you alone to think this through?" Asked Pauline. 

"No." Jackie whispered. "It's just... I... You know what I want, right?" 

"Yes, to love, and to be loved. It doesn't seem like too much to ask. Jackie... You're still a kid and so am I. I love you more than I can describe but... If you want to break up with me and go have relationships with other people. That's fine. I won't like it. I'll be upset. Who am I kidding, I'll be heartbroken. But... I've been through worse... I think I can find someone else. You will... definitely find someone else. If that's what you want then I won't stop you. As much as I love you, I could never keep you prisoner." 

Pauline got up and started walking the remaining distance to her house. 

"Aren't you supposed to?!" Jackie said quietly. 

Pauline stopped just short of her front door. 

Jackie ran up and grabbed Pauline. Slamming her into the door and growling. 

"You're mine, I'm yours. I don't want to let you go!" 

Pauline very gently took Jackie's hand off her shoulder and started softly kissing it. 

"You don't have to. You've expended massive effort to be this calm, in control, cool chick. This demands that you bury parts of yourself. Bury them deep. So deep that even you don't know what lies beneath anymore. If something were to take away your pretty face and your cool attitude, what would be left?" 

Pauline unlocked the door. Jackie asked. 

"What is there? Besides my looks and my attitude. What is there?" 

"A few things. There's always something. I'm sorry if I've made you feel uncomfortable. But these are the kinds of hellish, introspective journeys in search of inner strength that I like to send people on."

Jackie asked. "Are your parents home?" 

"Nope, my fathers playing golf and my mother is playing canasta with friends." 

Jackie calmly reached for her right ear and removed every single bit of metal from it. As Pauline took the handful of jewelry in her fist, Jackie grabbed Pauline's collar and whispered. "Let's have some fun... You know... The kind of fun we were talking about when I brought up the subject of getting more piercings? The... Equipment came in the mail yesterday." 

Pauline almost had a heart attack on the spot and stammered out... "Um... Maybe we don't do that. Maybe we..." 

"Aw... How can I say no to a face like that?" 


	7. Emily.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pauline and Jackie travel to France where they meet Pauline's friend Emily.

It was that same nightmare. 

The same damn nightmare she had ever since Mr Montrose died. 

Emily Lavoisier was running for dear life from the laughter. 

It seemed to be coming from everywhere. 

But the dream was slightly different this time. Usually she was running through an abandoned industrial area. This time she was running through Echo Creek. 

Which struck her as odd. She had never dreamt of Echo Creek before. 

She ran towards the one thing she knew was there. As the laughs drew closer and closer. Occasionally interspersed with a taunting meow. 

She ran to the front door of the house and tried to open it. It was locked. As were the windows. 

The laughs were really close now. 

She turned to face him. 

"You should have killed me when you had the chance." He always said that. 

"Yeah I probably should have. Well go on, get it over with." She always said back. 

He drew a knife and advanced on her. 

Bang! 

He fell to the ground. 

Emily turned around. 

It was just how she had always wanted this dream to end. Except it was the wrong person. It wasn't Pauline, it was some Asian girl that Emily didn't recognize. Holding a golden sixgun. 

Emily moved to hug her. But this girl she didn't recognize put her right index finger between her eyes and said, "I've been waiting a long time for this." 

"A long time for what?" Asked Emily. 

The girl tossed the sixgun into the air. It turned into a golden hummingbird and landed on Emily's back. Emily felt like she was being charged with a billion volts of energy. 

Emily staggered around in a daze for a moment. But before she could say another word, she realized that the Asian girl was gone. Pauline was there instead. Emily threw open her arms for a hug and in the blink of an eye she was on her. Smothering her with kisses. Emily kissed back. 

"Oh Tonneau. You stumbling, fumbling.... Absolutely charming little..." 

The tongue was too long. 

She opened her eyes. 

"Billy! dammit!" 

She pushed away the old steer. 

She was back in her bed. A window had been left open and an old steer had leaned in the window to give her a wake up call. She reached for a rag, wiped the bovine saliva off her face and closed the window. 

She didn't remember opening the window. She shut it and checked her phone. 

Besides the usual stuff she had an email from Pauline.

"Hey, mind if I come visit you? I will be bringing a friend with me." There was a photo attached. Once it finished downloading Emily stammered. 

"Holy... You're kidding, right? How the heck did you..." 

Emily stared at the photo of Pauline and this other girl. Pauline looked different as well. She was bigger in practically every dimension. Emily observed. "Woof, puberty was good to this girl." 

She scrolled down, there was another image. A drawing of another girl with the description. 

"I believe this girls name is Chloe. She is a free-runner. If you can find her my friend would be very pleased. Sorry, this is all the information we have to go on." 

Emily stretched out and said to no one. "So you want me to find a free runner named Chloe? Okay, no promises though." 

A portal materialized in the barn of the farm of the Lavoisier family. 

Jackie and Pauline stepped through. 

Pauline looked around warily as she closed the portal and checked her watch. 

"Okay, now all we have to do is sneak off the property and walk up the road to the house."

Once they were outside they saw that it was night. Once they had gotten on the road Pauline unwrapped her phone and plugged in its new SIM card. 

"Okay, everything's working. As far as anyone here knows, we just flew in on a British Airways flight." 

"I really don't see why we should make up stories about this. Can't we just tell them the truth?" Asked Jackie. 

"What? That the multiverse is out there? That dimensional scissors are a thing? You do realize that it's a theoretical possibility that if someone steals these from us that they could create a portal to the center of the sun? Know what happens when you bring the sun to Earth?" 

"Okay, I see your point." 

Pauline knocked on the door. 

After a moment Emily opened it. 

"Tonneau." 

"Egg Nog." 

"Come in, come in." 

Emily and Pauline kissed. Jackie was expecting a quick set of kisses, this was a touch more... Intimate. 

"Wow, um, been awhile since we did that, haven't we?" Said Pauline. 

Emily gestured for them both to come in. 

"Tonneau?" Asked Jackie. 

"I'll explain later." 

They walked into the living room where several other members of the Lavoisier family waited. Emily's parents and younger brother. After introductions and polite conversation it was time for dinner. 

Dinner conversation was a curious mix of English, French and scientific shorthand. Jackie couldn't help but think that the Lavoisier family was really nice. Warm, outgoing, polite. Such a contrast to Paulines stuffy parents. Although she couldn't help but notice that Emily's younger brother seemed to be a bit off. He was very quiet and kept glowering at Jackie. 

After dinner the three girls went to Emily's room. 

Jackie asked. "So... What's up with your younger brother?" 

"Young Guilliam is a psychopath." Said Pauline. "Through and through. But usually he tries to be a bit more charming than what you saw at dinner. I suppose he simply took one look at you and decided that he didn't want to bother with acting like less of a freak." 

Jackie nodded and asked. "Tonneau?" 

"You know I'm really surprised your parents didn't tell that story. Perhaps they didn't want to mortify us too much. Do you want to tell the story or should I?" 

Emily began. "Tonneau is 900 liters, or about 200 gallons of fluid. The last time Pauline came to France we went to the Viest-Lachies festival. We saw a cask being delivered to a food stand. 900 liters of egg nog. Pauline walked up to it and exclaimed that she had never seen so much egg nog in her life. Her mind couldn't comprehend that much egg nog all in one place. And then what did I say?" 

"You asked if we were going to steal it, how would we... go about it?" 

"So we wind up standing in front of this thing until a crowd starts to gather. She wants to steal it and I'm trying to talk her out of it. I figure that once we have this many people standing around theft is an impossibility. Everyone will see us take it. But she doesn't think so. So then I ask, okay, let's say that we could take it. How would you take it?" 

"Yeah, and then before I can come up with an answer a little old lady has a stroke, stomps on her gas pedal when she should have stomped on the brake. Her car went soaring over the curb and pow! Straight into the barrel." 

"We got washed into a drainage ditch on a literal wave of egg nog. And ever since then we've been..." 

"Tonneau and Egg Nog." Said Jackie. 

"Bingo." Emily replied. "So, now I know how you two came to be together. And why you have come to France. But something tells me that there's more to this story than you two wanting to see me?" 

"Did you have any luck tracking down Chloe?" Asked Pauline. 

"Oui, her name is Chloe Rittencroft. As you said she is a free-runner who lives in Paris. She hangs out with other free-runners at 47 Rue Dormouse. We can go there anytime we like. So... How do you know her?" 

"I had a dream about her." Said Jackie. 

"Fascinating that a dream would lead you to such a specific person. What kind of a dream... Was it?" Asked Emily. 

"Vague and confusing and it left me with a lot of questions. I'm hoping Chloe might be able to answer them."

"Hm... Odd, but so... Tell me, what happened since the last time we talked? How come you are... built like the proverbial brick shit-house nowadays?" Asked Emily. 

"I've been going through some changes. Been working out a lot." Replied Pauline. 

"Yeah I'll say, I mean, you look like a superhero or something. You don't have the little hearts on your cheeks anymore." 

"Yeah, I'm... Not really StarFan13 anymore." 

"Well then what are you?" 

"I'm not really sure. But you know how Star Butterfly could do magic?" 

"Yeah." 

"Well..." 

Pauline let her wings out. 

"I can do magic too." 

Emily looked at the wings, entranced. "Incredible, just incredible. Does this mean you can fly?" 

"Kinda. My powers are limited. I need an external power source to do most forms of magic." 

"And where do you find this power sour..." 

Emily felt funny. 

"Excuse me." 

She got up and ran to the bathroom. But by the time she got there the nausea had subsided. Emily poured herself a glass of water, drank it, shook her head and went back to her room. 

"Sorry, I don't know what that was, just felt a little..." 

Emily started gasping. 

There was this golden light suffusing Pauline and Jackie. They looked... Angelic. Something possessed Emily and she sat down right between the two of them. Jackie started sniffing the air and asked, "do you smell anything?" 

"No." Replied Jackie and Pauline. 

"Smells like... Plum flowers. Emily, are you okay?" 

Emily had a huge smile on her face. "I've never felt better." 

Emily's eyes rolled up into her head and she fell asleep. Pauline checked her pulse and her breathing. They were both perfectly fine. But Emily was out like a light. 

"Is she a narcoleptic?" Asked Jackie. 

"No, I think showing her my wings was just too much for her. Here, let me help you see what I see." 

Pauline held the sides of Jackie's head and gave her just enough magical energy to allow Jackie's eyes to take on an ommatidia pattern. 

"Oh, wow!" Exclaimed Jackie. 

"Yeah, it's really something. It looks like Emily had some really incredible magical potential. It just needed to be unlocked." 

"So did we unlock it or are we going to have to start doing symmetri..." 

Jackie held her hand a few inches above Emily's shoulder. Jackie could see the energies cycling between them. 

"No, I think all we have to do here is just let her rest." Explained Pauline as she began tucking Emily into bed.


	8. Chloe.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things tend to get a little dark in my StarFan13 influenced Star vs the Forces of Evil lines of probability. 
> 
> I shall now offer you a particularly dark version of what happened to Jackie Lynn Thomas in canon. 
> 
> Trigger warning! contains extremely racist dialog in French.

The next day Emily woke up with Pauline on her left and Jackie on her right.

_"What a thing to wake up to."_ Emily thought. 

She squeezed out of bed and went to the bathroom. But once she was done in there she found her way blocked by her younger brother.

"Dad said there's a problem with one of the goats. Come with me." He snapped.

Emily walked past him with a satisfied look on her face.

"Hey, didn't you hear me?!"

"I heard you just fine."

Guilliam grabbed her wrist and insisted. "Come with me right now or else."

"Or else what? I just got up. Give me a minute to get dressed, okay?"

Emily stared him down as she had done a thousand times before. Guilliam let go and said, "I'm going, damn it, but you're going to pay for this!" 

Emily opened the door to the bathroom.

There was someone she didn't recognize on the other side. An Asian girl in a white suit.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Kolibri, Pauline's subconscious. I sensed something evil was about to happen. Was I wrong?"

"Probably not, that's just my brother being my brother. Little control freak, so, I've got to take care of something. But we should be able to head into Paris later today." Emily said as she pointed behind her.

Emily looked back at the bathroom and saw that the girl had vanished. Once she was done there Emily went back to her room to see that Jackie and Pauline were waking up.

"Got to meet the projection of your subconscious a few minutes ago. Interesting girl."

"You met Kol..."

Pauline held her head, a set of memories trickled in from the incident moments ago.

"Ugh, yeah. Guilliam, he..." Pauline yawned and said. "I really don't like thinking about that kid."

A few hours later the three girls arrived in a somewhat blighted arrondissement of Paris.

"Okay, I believe that is what we came here for."

There were about a dozen kids of varying ages hanging out underneath the walls. One of them looked quite familiar to Jackie, Pauline stated. "Okay, her hairstyle is a little different, but that's definitely her."

"I really... I don't know about this. I mean, that was some other timeline and I already said my actions in it didn't make any sense, who knows what I did or who I was there." Jackie said anxiously.

"You're chickening out?" Asked Pauline.

"Really? Really? Really?! I have to be the one who tells you of all people this? There was some heinous shit in those other timelines. How do we know that by my talking to her we might cause events that lead to events similar to what happened in those other timelines?" Snapped Jackie.

"Okay, good point."

Emily piped up. "I was not a part of those other timelines. And I believe your... not so imaginary friend wasn't either? From what you have told me there's no chance that the events of those timelines can happen now and even if they can... What's the risk in talking to some girl?"

Jackie shook loose from their grasp and said. "Okay, it's fine, I got this. I'll just go over, say bonjour. We will talk about nothing at all and then we leave. Got it?"

"Crystal." Said Pauline.

"Clear." Said Emily.

Jackie turned around and started walking towards the kids.

"Are you worried that they are going to run off together?" Emily asked Pauline.

"Not particularly, but if they do then I suppose it will just be me and you."

Pauline took Emily's right hand and asked, "and you wouldn't like that one bit, would you?"

Emily smiled at Pauline as they waited for Jackie to speak.

Jackie anxiously extended her hand. They made eye contact but as Chloe smiled at her one... last... deeply ashamed part of Jackie Lynn Thomas's existence shook loose. Jackie realized the true nature of the relationship between that other her and some other Chloe. A voice which was plainly hers. Though from some other plane of existence said. 

"Do whatever you like to this... Thing." 

"Excuse me?" Asked Chloe. 

Jackie glared at Chloe. She had to hurt this... Person, really really badly. She had to hurt all of these people really, really badly and really really... Specifically. But she knew that this was some other Chloe who technically hadn't violated her. So Jackie said something with an unmistakable clarity of intent and language. 

"Votre père est un violeur maures et votre mère était une chatte blanche déshonorante qui a trahi la France. Je pisse volontiers sur leurs deux tombes à chaque occasion!"

The other French street kids immediately stopped what they were doing.

Chloe was speechless and frozen.

This gave Emily and Pauline time to get alongside Jackie and ask. "What did you just say?! And why!?!"

Jackie looked Chloe straight in the eye and spat, "Tu m'entends."

Jackie turned around and walked away. The dozen or so kids began to form up. Pauline and Emily looked at them anxiously, Emily said in French, "very sorry about that... I, we really have no idea what got into our friend."

Pauline said, "probably shouldn't have said she was our friend."

"Your friend has quite a little mouth on her." Said Chloe in English. "Who is she and what's her fucking problem!?"

"Sorry, can't tell you!" Said Pauline as she started hustling Emily out of there, a finger hooked into Pauline's shirt collar. "Go, I've got this!" She squeaked as Emily ran away.

In one smooth motion Pauline unhooked Chloe's finger and turned to face her.

"Again, I'm sorry. I have no idea what got into my friend, but if you will just..."

A fist was already flying. Pauline dodged the punch as one of the street kids followed his punch too far and fell on the ground.

Pauline held up one finger and asked.

"I realize that a violation has taken place. So... how are we going to do this? Is it going to be one v one? Or am I going to have to chuck out the rule book and kill all of you with my bare hands?"

"We fight together!" Said a street kid about twice Pauline's size. 

Chloe held up a finger and shouted. "Back the fuck up. I got this."

"But..."

Chloe insisted strongly. "I... got... this. She wasn't the one who dishonored us. She just knows the bitch who did. So... what? We fight, I win, we get an apology? We fight, I lose and we let you and your friend go?"

"Sounds good to me." Pauline replied.

"Alle!" Shouted Chloe as she assumed a fighting posture.

Pauline did so as well.

Chloe launched a left hook. Pauline evaded it and socked Chloe in the side of the head. Chloe bounced back up and said. "Good reflexes, let's see how you do with this."

Chloe telegraphed a kick but actually tried to lean in for a hold. Pauline responded with a furious series of punches to the head.

Chloe backed off and spun around, feeling kinda dizzy. Pauline asked, "listen, are we done here? I really don't want this to go any fu..."

Incoming bottle.

Kolibri formed just enough to grasp the bottle and guide it into Paulines left hand.

Three of the other kids, the biggest and strongest ones had already begun their charge.

Pauline smashed the bottle on the head of her first attacker.

The second, just a little taller than Pauline. Received a horrible gash across his stomach.

The third was an absolute mountain. To Pauline he looked like he was at least 25. She skewered him right in the testes.

They all went down so fast that they didn't even know what had hit them.

Pauline now stood between nine kids and Chloe with a broken beer bottle in her hand. She assumed a fighting posture and asked, "come on you fucking cowards!!! Is that all you got!?"

The rest of the kids fled.

Pauline carefully wiped her fingerprints off the bottle and smashed it into a nearby garbage can. Then turned to leave.

"Wait! You can't just leave!" Exclaimed Chloe.

"Your friends are bleeding out. I suggest you call an ambulance!"

Chloe's jaw dropped. This... Lunatic girl appeared to have a set of wings.

Chloe looked at her phone. It was dead. She ran towards Renard, unconscious on the ground. His phone had not been damaged by his fall. But it was dead as well. By the time she looked up again Pauline was gone.

Chloe ran towards some nearby pay phones.

Once Pauline was out of sight of the street kids she started shivering uncontrollably. Kolibri formed just enough to be visible to her and hold her hand. Reassured Pauline evened out and started jogging to the Paris apartment that Jackie's aunt Matilda had arranged for them to stay at.

The apartment was nothing special. It's occupants were all busy with school or work when Jackie and Emily showed up. Jackie had a key and they waited inside for Pauline to catch up to them. When she did Pauline found Emily and Jackie were just staring at each other.

Jackie asked, "Pauline, can you get your friend to stop staring at me?"

"No, I'll think I'll join her. Jackie, what in the ever loving fuck was that?"

"What? My... Choice words with Chloe?"

"Yeah, I think that was the most racist thing I've ever heard in my life! Why! I mean, did she do something to you?"

"Yeah... She... Kinda did." Jackie replied. 

"Explain." Said Emily sternly.

"The moment I locked eyes with her it was like... We only saw Star's memories of that timeline. The moment I got close enough to Chloe to smell her it triggered... something I can't even comprehend. I mean, it was... It was my memories of that timeline, not Stars. Pauline... We watched that anime series, Gate?" 

"Yeah."

"Do you remember when they tried to kidnap Rory?"

Pauline went silent. She sat down next to Jackie and held her hand.

"What? I don't get it. I mean, I've never heard of Gate." Said Emily.

Pauline explained. "In that anime series Rory Mercury is a demigod of war from another dimension, visiting a dimension vaguely similar to ours. Though clearly one described by Japanese patriots with a giant chip on their shoulder. The American, Russian and Chinese governments tried to kidnap Rory... A literal demigod of war, from Japanese custody. She slaughtered the kidnappers, laughing the whole time."

Jackie began to cry as she continued. "I'm not Rory." Said Jackie, "but you know what? I think I want to be Rory for a little while. That other me... Your government made arrangements for that other me to come to France. Aunt Matilda died not long after that other me broke up with Marco. And she had written in her will that I would have a scholarship... To the Sorbonne. They recruited Chloe and assigned her to be my handler."

Jackie let go of Pauline's hands, got up and put her head against the wall. Continuing to speak in an ever creepier, quieter tone of voice. 

"It was all innocent at first. Just questions, then the questions got more insistent, more detailed."

Jackie looked at Emily.

Emily was backing the fuck up.

"They interrogated me for a month straight. You know the intelligence agencies know these... Tricks to hurt people and not leave a scratch? They hurt me... They squeezed every single drop of knowledge of Star Butterfly and the kingdom of Mewni out of other me with a sack of oranges!" 

Jackie laid her hands on Emily's shoulders. Emily felt terrified.

"But that... That was nothing compared to what Chloe... And her, friends did. To.. Me... The agents, they concluded that they had gotten all they could from me and put me in a taxi to the airport. Back to America with nothing more than a head full of hazy memories and incredibly powerful drugs. Then Chloe and her friends arrange a little detour to... 'Give me a proper going away party."

Pauline said, "okay, this has been fun. But I'm afraid we really should be leaving now."

Jackie saw the dimensional scissors and grabbed them for herself. Her eyes had phased into a diamond ommatidia pattern as she concluded. "Now we have a quandary. How do we know that I'm not making shit up? Well, we need evidence, don't we. I know exactly where to get it."

Jackie grabbed Emily's phone and cut a dimensional portal. To a room inside the largest faraday cage in Europe. The DSGE agents inside didn't even have time to realize that they were about to be invaded.

Jackie grew her own set of holographic wings. An absurdly baroque three dimensional design. She sighted in on a now familiar face, reached out her hand and said. **"Levitato!"**

The commander of DSGE's dimensional research division's... neck flew into Jackie's open right hand. The commanders body was just barely able to keep up. He knew his mind was about to be consumed by hers as an Orca whale consumes a penguin.

Jackie hesitated just long enough to take a series of pictures of the evidence board and several other things with Emily's phone. Jackie asked in a cacophonous, unbelievably powerful voice that caused him to bleed out of his ears.

**"Was Emily Lavoisier part of your operation?"**

"No, never. She's just... Pauline's friend!" Stammered the commander.

**"Was Pauline?"**

"No!"

**"Was Star?"**

"No! How could she? She's not even aware that we were surveilling her?" 

**"Were you going to kill my aunt?"**

"Yes... that was... the plan."

Jackie squeezed his neck one last time and finished. **"If I ever, and I mean ever see any of you people again. I'll break your whole fucking nation over your heads."**

Jackie exited the dipped down state and cut another portal. She gestured to Pauline and Emily and said. **"Come on."**

Pauline stepped through, but before Emily stepped through she said. "If any of you tell my parents about this then I'm telling everyone about your illegal surveillance operation."

Emily stepped through to see Pauline walking behind Jackie along a road in a place that Emily did not recognize. Jackie gave Emily her phone back. She checked their location. They were in Echo Creek.

"Wow, oh! it's okay, it's over now." Said Emily as she ran to catch up.

 **"I still want to kill them."** Growled Jackie.

"I understand and thank you for not doing that." Said Emily.

"Yeah well... Damn it! I didn't just see it happen, I felt it happen, I felt those... Pauline, you... You got the really tall one, right? You got him right in the balls, didn't you?"

"I did."

"I'm sorry for using you as a blunt instrument."

"It's... Okay... I suppose. I mean the guy did try to beat me up. If a multiverse exists and apparently it does then in some other dimension he probably succeeded."

Emily looked around and asked. "So, uh... Can you make me a portal back to my place? I think my parents might get a bit worried if I don't check in."

Pauline said, "hey, how about you stay here for a couple days? I've... We have both really enjoyed hanging around with you."

"Perhaps, but first I have to."

They came around a corner.

"Britney!?"

"Hey, Pauline, Jackie."

Jackie looked down and said to her. "I didn't know you had a dog."

"Ah, he isn't really mine, he's my fathers."

Emily walked up to the large bulldog. Britney said, "say hello, Billy."

The bulldog offered his paw. Emily petted the dog and looked at this girl that they had just walked into. Emily offered her hand for a handshake. "I presume you are Britney Wong?"

"You presume correctly." She said as she extended her hand.

"Emily Lavoisier, I'm a friend of Pauline."

Britney accepted the handshake and asked Jackie who was clearly incredibly upset about something. "So... where are you going?"

"I'm going back to my place. I've got to... I don't know, cry into a pillow or something." Said Jackie.

"What's got you so upset?" Asked Britney.

There was a moments hesitation, but Jackie explained. "I just found out that I was the subject of a French government surveillance operation and in some other timeline they killed my aunt to lure me to France where I was the subject of enhanced interrogation. Then raped by a gang of adorable French street urchins."

"Whoa, are you okay?"

"Not really. I've got to go, I'll talk to you later." Jackie said as she stormed off.

"Okay." Said Britney.

Pauline and Jackie walked off but Emily remained, petting the dog.

"So... I take it from your accent that you're French?"

"Oui."

"Ah, that's... Then I... So how do you fit into this?" 

"I am just an old friend of Pauline's."

"And I assume you aren't hurrying along after them because you don't want to remind Jackie of what just... Didn't happen?"

"Pretty much. But I should get going. The Long family house is... Three quarters of a mile down this road, right?"

"Yes, but... If you want to help me walk the dog you're welcome to come with."

"Ah, I'd love to."

Billy rolled over onto his back and allowed Emily to rub his belly. "I just love Bulldogs. They are so charming. And they have that look that can only be described as..."

Emily fumbled for the words in English. "So ugly they're cute?" 

Britney started walking. "Yeah, I... I don't like dogs. Or I didn't until Pauline ripped all the wiring out of my brain and reinstalled it."

"She did what? Oh, magically I assume?"

"Magically she did."

As she and the bulldog stood up Emily stated. "Ripped the wiring out? That sounds incredibly painful."

"It was, but it was worth it. I had some anger issues that she's helping me though."

Connections fired in Emily's mind. "Wait... Oh hang on, ah now I remember you! Yes! Before she was StarFan13 she was BrittneyFan13. Oh yes, Pauline's obsession was with you! But she's much less obsessive these days."

"Yeah that's... Still something I have a little trouble with."

"So what's been going on in this town? You've got magical princesses and monsters on the loose and girls doing magic. Should I be worried about being ambushed by inter-dimensional creatures? Or if they pop up are you going to defend us with a golden six gun?"

"How do you know about that?!" Shouted Britney.

"Know about what? The monsters? Pauline posts pictures of them all the time and Jackie just gave me a demonstration."

"No, the gun!"

"The gun? Ah, the night before Pauline contacted me to tell me she was coming I had a dream. Kolibri, who has your face, saved me from a bad guy with a golden revolver."

Britney walked in silence for a moment. Until she said, "come with me please."

They went to Britney's house. They went up to her room where Britney pulled a case out from under her bed. Inside was a brass framed percussion revolver. Britney held up the revolver and asked, "does this look familiar?"

"Yes, it looks exactly like what I saw in the dream."

Britney looked at it and asked, "and I saved you with this?"

Emily nodded in the affirmative.

Britney put the revolver away and asked. "Saved you from what?"

My little bastard of a brother.

Jackie's parents weren't home. Jackie stomped into her bedroom, flopped onto her bed and began crying.

Pauline sat next to her. She didn't touch Jackie until Jackie demanded it.

Pauline leaned in gently. With what Jackie had just seen she didn't want to presume or pressure anything. But there was one thing she had to clarify. "You're not... You said that racist stuff for pure shock value... Right?" 

"Pauline, you know me well enough to know that I'm not a racist. But when you've just seen..." 

After a few more minutes of quiet sobbing Jackie said. "I think I'm okay... I just... When I got flooded with those memories, when I saw what happened to that other me... I lost control." 

"Yeah, and I know how you don't like losing control." Pauline replied. 

Jackie looked away and said. "It's an alien sensation for me. It's just... Not me!" 

"It wasn't you." Pauline replied. 

Jackie chuckled and said, "another bit of symmetry there."

Pauline caressed Jackie's face and smiled. Jackie asked, "if I had killed everyone in that bunker what would you have done?"

"I probably would have let you do it. I wouldn't have helped though."

"Hm, that... Sounds like you."

Jackie looked away and began crying. "I just... I've watched other me's be burned, crushed, beaten senseless, tortured. But every time it's always been off world. I never imagined that one of our governments would be involved in that sort of crap."

"Jackie... No offense, but Earth governments pull this kind of shit all the time."

"Yeah, I suppose, it's just..."

"Hey, we stopped the operation, we saved your Aunt and we're back in the States. They can't hurt you anymore."

"Do you think our government is surveiling us?" Jackie asked.

"Oh almost certainly. If there was a team of federal agents going around tidying up after Star, Marco and Ludo's little fights it would explain a great deal. It's the main reason why I stopped updating my blog." 

"Then why didn't our government protect other me? Why didn't they protect my Aunt?"

"I don't know. Perhaps because other you broke up with Marco and you weren't a part of the main operation anymore. Perhaps they didn't know about the French operation. We only have other Star and other you's memories to work from."

Jackie stood up, went to her home phone and dialed her aunt.

"Hey."

"Jackie? So, how's the trip?"

"It... It's fine. I... I'm sorry I just discovered something kinda messed up and I just needed to talk to you. I know it's late, but I just want you to know..."

Jackie hesitated. Pauline held her hand again.

"I'm sorry I didn't get to know you better. And once this is over I swear I'm going to come visit you more often."

"Okay Jackie, thank you."

"I love you."

"I love you too. Stay safe."

Jackie hung up, she stared at Pauline and said.

"This... This may sound selfish, but. Thank you for saving Matilda and thank you for saving me. I know you would have done this for Star... Or even Janna. Or any decent person who asked. It's what you do, it's who you are. It's what you always are when you get the chance. Thank you for saving me and I swear I will find a way of showing you how grateful I am for you and everything you've done." 


	9. Unsubtle metaphors.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pauline begins her magical girl training program. 
> 
> She still doesn't know what she is doing.

"So, you three want to be what we shall call for the time being, Rory Mercury type magical girls?" Asked Pauline. She was marching in front of the three other girls like a drill sergeant. "Well it's not going to be easy. Rory is a simple enough design. Preposterously simple in many ways. Simple, powerful and dangerous. A rather unoriginal character given to a particularly dark shade of magic. But, since you three have your hearts set on it. Let us begin with the first lesson."

"Lesson one, there are all different sorts of magic and thus all different sorts of magical girls. A question that needs to be asked is what kind of magical girl do you want to become? What will you become after that? A magical girl will usually mature into a witch. This isn't something inherently good or bad. It's all up to you. Even Rory after hundreds upon hundreds of years of being a magical girl matured into something else. She is a demigoddess of war and of a very specific type of love. It's a love nigh impossible to control. A love that can only be let out under specific circumstances. But once it is out it stays out until everyone who stands in her way is dead... Rory is a grown up child's fantasy. A corporeal war goddess. Subject to strange rules, able to do rather terrifying th..." 

Pauline realized something. 

"And I think I just realized why the US, Chinese and Russian governments sent snatch teams after her. They were probably influenced to do so by the war god that Rory was a prophet of. They sent their best soldiers after her as a little appetizer, a tribute to him. Sorry, I was just realizing that show was even stupider than I thought it was. And yes I know there's a manga. I haven't read it. Either way... okay. How to be the most militant and violent of magical girls. First of all, you're going to need a weapon, a primary weapon. You will decide what this primary weapon is after testing no less than a hundred different weapons. That will take awhile, so for now... let's see what you've got." 

Jackie picked up something from a nearby bag. It was a British Royal Navy officers sword. A simple but effective design. It reflected Jackie fairly well for a mass produced weapon. 

Britney drew her revolver from a holster on her hip. 

Emily looked around. She had never purchased a weapon in her life. So she reached for what seemed like the most potent weapon at hand. A double headed wood axe. She swung it around a couple of times. Then teed up a bit of wood against another piece of wood in the Long family backyard and chopped it, announcing. 

"Yes, this feels like it will work. So, what's your weapon of choice?" Asked Emily. 

Pauline provided a camera. 

All three of them were confused. 

"I really would have thought you would have grabbed a gun." Said Jackie. 

"I could, but that wouldn't just be formulaic and deliberative. Deliberative? What!? Derivative, that's the word I was looking for. It would miss the point of some of my best elements. I had a realization about something when I took those pictures of Globgor. Remember the character of Catherine Vauban? She reminded me that a picture can be a far more devastating weapon than a gun. Reminded me of things like this... Ahem. The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird. An advanced long-ranged strategic reconnaissance aircraft capable of Mach 3 and an altitude of eighty-five thousand feet!"

"You sure seem to know a lot about it....." Said Britney. 

"DO YOU EVEN READ MY CHRISTMAS LISTS?!?" Replied Pauline. "So yeah, the SR-71. It's big, it's fast. It's possibly the most extremely awesome plane ever created by the hand of man. It was constantly flown into the teeth of the most sophisticated air defense systems on the planet. And it never carried a weapon in combat. Unarmed and unafraid. The entire reason for its service beyond being a science experiment was Strategic Reconnaissance. Which brings me to the most important point that I want to get across. A magical girl with a weapon in her hand does not have that hand free for something more productive. So with that in mind, I'm going to ask one last time. If you do want me to teach you all I know about this magical girl thing, please use weapons sparingly."

Britney holstered her revolver. 

Jackie put away her sword. 

Emily took three more pieces of wood and chopped them up. Then whacked the axe into a chopping block. 

"What? You two don't like to chop wood?" Asked Emily. 

"We've never had to chop wood in our lives." Replied Britney and Jackie at the same time. 

Pauline nodded in approval and continued. "Hmmm, something we shall have to work on, chopping wood is good exercise. But for now... When a magical girl has a weapon in her hand she has to dedicate her whole self to that weapon. Rory Mercury's axe was unbelievably heavy and preposterously poorly balanced. But that was the point. Her weapon was very difficult for anyone besides her or a human with special industrial equipment to move." 

Pauline began making striking gestures with her open hands. 

"Rory's axe is an excellent symbol of diminishing returns. The harder you fight, the longer you fight. The harder you have to fight. There is always another enemy, always a bigger fish. Even amongst gods and other murderously overpowered entities." 

Paulines gestures grew more precise and careful. 

"And in order to maintain an optimal balance for extracting energies out of an armed conflict. In order to provide a balanced energetic buffet to the war god that Rory Mercury served. Rory had to compensate with her own biology. When soldiers died around her, her entire... Body... Came to life in a very... Distinct way, did it not?" 

Pauline closed a fist and said, "a very specific and dangerous type of love. You have to become a berserker, but maintain that delicate feathered edge of control while in a frenzy of battle in order to keep from killing your allies is something of a challenge when one becomes sexually attracted to mass murder. Which brings me to lesson number two. Proper use of fear." 

Pauline took a deep breath and walked away. She came back with some chairs and the lesson transitioned from a drill sergeant speaking to recruits to a girl talking to her friends. 

"Popular culture over the past few years has become enamored of a certain archetype. The princess warrior. Unfortunately since so much of popular culture comes from corporate sources it's usually just variations on the same damned theme. The invincible girl. A small woman or girl who can easily beat the stuffing out of a room full of large, dangerous men. I got away with doing this once by taking a bunch of drug addled idiots completely by surprise and by fighting dirty. Rory gets away with it because she is a demigod fighting mortals. In real life... If any of you are in a similar situation you probably won't do so well. Even with magic powers. I've been lucky so far, sooner or later I'm going to run into something I can't handle and when that happens if I'm lucky I'm probably going to die quickly. If I'm unlucky I'll die... Slowly." 

Pauline manifested a glowing hologram in her right hand. It was an image of Jackie facing off against Marco. As the holograms began to fight Pauline commented. 

"In most forms of combat women are at a disadvantage. Because of simple biology, men were created to work, to build, to hunt, fight and break stuff. We are better at other things. As a result of decades of propaganda this balance has become upset." 

The Marco hologram punched the Jackie hologram in the face. The holograms dissolved. 

"Men and women are supposed to work together. We are supposed to shore up each other's weaknesses. But we have been sold a pack of lies that we can exist without each other. That we are better off without each other. It's been said that the difference between a magical girl and a superhero is that a magical girl either works alone or only has other girls backing her up. A superhero knows how to work with others. We... Probably need to work on this. Which leads into the magical girls greatest flaw. A lesson most magical girls don't learn until it's too late. Read the contract, examine the fine print and look carefully for an agenda with the people you work with. Do your research and due diligence before you go blundering into a situation. This can apply to making deals with cute fuzzy creatures. Or all sorts of other things." 

Pauline let that sink in for a moment, then continued. "Either way... fear. Or more accurately, deterrence. Deterrence is the art of generating in the mind of the enemy, the fear to attack. When I attacked those idiots who wouldn't turn down their radio I paralyzed the last one with fear. I did so by making it clear to him that I had complete dominance of the situation. In combat you must be willing to use every possible advantage and you must illustrate to your enemies that you are simply not worth the trouble. And in order to do that you must be willing to go all the way." 

Pauline looked around. Emily was in. Britney was in. Jackie was waffling somewhat. 

"But we can get to that later. For now, lesson number three. Critical thinking. One of the most important lessons my future self learned. The Trivium Method, which is in short. That you take in information through your senses, you process the information removing all fallacies, inconsistencies and contradictions and only after that do you share it with others. Think like this and the world will make much more sense." 

Emily raised her hand and asked, "eliminate all contradictions? Why?" 

"Contradictions do not exist in nature." Said Pauline. 

"They do in quantum physics." 

"Well, yes and no. Quantum physics experiments can have contradictory results. But not when you measure them. In order for reality to exist as we know it someone has to collapse the wave function and create a single measurable result. Even if that result is constantly changing like the ripples on a pond. And we are talking about reality at the quantum scale. At larger scales things are a bit more steady. At larger scales contradictions do no exist except in the human mind." 

"Well what about..." Emily racked her brain to find an example of a contradiction that did not lie in thought or the quantum scale. "Okay, what about magic itself? Doesn't that have the ability to induce contradictions?" 

"Not that I've seen so far. The magic that I have seen and done and that Jackie has seen and done and that Britney has been a... Victim of seems to obey some fairly consistent rules. It's mostly about using energy to manifest things, physical objects, life forms." 

"But if contradictions exist in the human mind and magic is a way of manifesting what lies in the human mind then wouldn't that mean that a contradiction could manifest in the physical world?" Asked Emily. 

"Theoretically yes, but I haven't seen it yet. What about you, Jackie? You've seen more than I have." 

Jackie replied, "I've seen some pretty weird stuff. But no physical contradictions just yet. Well, except black holes. And even those aren't really a contradiction. Just a place where reality itself gets a bit warped." 

"Ah yes, black holes. Where quantum physics meets with general relativity and everything goes utterly mad. You told me that the Star Butterfly that started all this had the ability to create black holes magically, Oui?" Asked Emily. 

"She did, and the older me in that timeline had the ability to create..." 

"I think we're getting off into the weeds here. I thought we were here to learn how to become magical girls. Not talk about contradictions?" Britney interrupted. 

Pauline slapped her thigh and said, "yes, indeed we are. So, we covered the trivium, we covered fear, now we should probably spend some time talking about balance, ahem." 

Pauline started making symmetrical hand gestures. 

"So, you are energy, I am energy, everything around us is energy. All known matter is simply energy. This energy exists in different states and different resonances making up all the matter we know as reality. What we call magic is simply the manipulation of these energies in ways that most people cannot. The key to understanding this energy is to know that everything is connected via the zero point field. Coming at things from a strictly scientific perspective. Helium cannot be frozen because of the zero point field. No matter how cold you make it helium will remain a liquid. Make things cold enough and other physical objects tap into the zero point field. The magic I practice makes use of the zero point field in combination with the dimension of magic." 

Pauline stopped gesturing and folded her hands. Another hologram emerged in front of her. One of golden traceries between star systems. 

"The dimension of magic is very far from everything. But it connects and permeates everything. There's a mechanism here that I still don't fully understand that kept Earth cut off from this network for centuries. But when Star came to Earth a connection which had been severed came back online with... Ugly and strange consequences." 

The golden connections became silver connections. 

"I still don't know where this is going to lead. But Star and Marco were at the center of it. Now I am as well, and so are Jackie and Britney. We have grabbed a hold of something tremendously powerful and at this point I'm honestly not sure wether we are using it or it is using us. Or perhaps it's some weird combination of both, either way..." 

The hologram changed to an image of a horse. 

"The center of the dimension of magic looks like this now. It is conscious, but for the moment this consciousness seems limited. Since it is connected to practically everything in the multiverse it is everything and nothing. We must protect it at all costs. Judging by what me and Jackie learned in one of the other timelines it is vulnerable to contamination. This contamination is usually not a problem because of the distance between the dimensions central hub and the rest of the universe. But if someone who has been insufficiently purified travels to the dimension then bad things happen." 

The golden horse hologram was replaced with a nightmare horse hologram. 

"I really do wonder what would have happened if Star hadn't destroyed the dimension of magic before this thing took over the dimension of magic completely. It probably would have been a nightmare beyond description. Might have just wiped out all life in the multiverse. Perhaps we will get to find out if Kolibri's countermeasures aren't enough to keep the dimension clean. But for now..." 

Pauline waved her hands through the hologram dissolving it. 

"I draw power through the zero point field and the dimension of magic. Jackie derives her power strictly through the dimension of magic and Britney derives her power strictly from the zero point field. I want to see if we can harmonize our abilities. And in order to do that..." 

"How can you tell?" Asked Emily? 

"Ah..." 

Pauline tapped her head as she showed everyone the turbine pattern in her eyes. 

"With eyes like this I can see it. When Jackie and I recharged the wand we established a connection to the realm of magic. I can see the faintest traceries of energetic links between me, her and the dimension of magic. Britney has no such links so she draws her abilities from the zero point field, however, for the moment she can only access the field through her own body. And you...." 

"Me?" Asked Emily. 

"I'm looking right at you and I'm still not sure how you work, magically... Just yet. Okay, let me try to explain this as I understand it. Mewnian Queens can do magic with the wand but over time their bodies become charged with magical energy. This becomes manifest at first when they go through a process called Mewberty. The older me who started all this never went through Mewberty. She just clamped onto Star Butterfly and the dimension of magic and drank her fill while tripping balls on 5meoDMT. I don't think we want to do that but in a way Jackie and I already have. I think it might be possible to tune or unlock our bodies to be able to handle magic."

"How are we going to do that?" Asked Britney. 

Pauline got up from the chair and told Emily to lie down on the lawn saying. "I think this is going to be easier with Emily than with you. Hang back for a moment." 

Pauline and Jackie began to make symmetrical gestures above Emily. 

Within moments Emily began to twitch. This encouraged Pauline and Jackie to pour on the energy. 

Then they stopped. 

Britney asked, "is everything okay?" 

Jackie, Pauline and Emily were stuck in place. Britney moved closer. It was like some force was holding all three girls in place. 

Emily stood up, bowed to Pauline and Jackie. Then exclaimed in horror as a pair of holographic wings shot out of Emily's back. They were small at first. But they grew. Soon they took on a simple but elegant curving shape with a silvery color. A diamond pattern traced across Emily's eyes. The wings became more corporeal... Then vanished entirely. 

Jackie and Pauline were still motionless. 

Emily looked over at Britney and groaned, "I'm okay, I'm just... Wow, that was really..." 

They looked at Jackie and Pauline. 

Their eyes were phasing into ommatidia patterns. They looked like they were struggling with something much stronger than they were. Their respective wings came out and Jackie said in a big booming voice. 

**"A long time."**

**"Until now."** Said Pauline in her version of the big booming voice. 

They leapt up and grabbed Britney by the shoulders. Britney jumped away and... Something between a well choreographed fight and a badly choreographed dance ensued.

Their motions were smooth and graceful. Their expressions strangely detached, while Britney was moving very abruptly. Desperately defending herself. To her this was a serious fight. 

Britney drew her revolver. It wasn't loaded but it would make an effective club. Jackie grabbed Britney from behind and Pauline got the gun away from her. 

The fight stopped. They were all motionless again. Breathing heavily. Emily removed the revolver from Pauline's grasp and waited for what was going to happen next. 

Britney's wings shot out of and back into her back like a switchblade. Barely long enough to see. But long enough to see that they looked a bit darker and more riveted than Emily's. 

Britney settled back to the ground in a symmetrical meditative position. 

Jackie gasped for breath and chuckled with mild amusement as she backed away. 

Pauline fell to her knees and heaved in air through her lungs. 

Britney looked around. She felt insanely powerful. She saw Emily and something somewhat perverse invited her to invoke...

**"Levitato!"**

Emily rose to her feet and flew towards Britney. But by the time Emily was within Britney's grasp, Britney was passing out from exhaustion. It had all been too much too fast. 

Pauline staggered back to her feet and said. "Okay, I think we got a lot done for today. But before we do anything else that warps the fabric of reality we should probably all take some time to relax. So, shall we all meet back here, same time tomorrow?"


	10. Walk with me.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Britney walks home. 
> 
> Emily walks with her and they discuss some rather painful and very personal history.

Emily and Britney walked towards Britney's home. The two of them had felt increasingly drawn to each other simply by a matter of resonance. 

Britney and Emily walked in silence for a good long while. Until Britney asked. 

"Have you ever been to Cambodia?" 

"No, why?" 

"That's where my family is from originally. We were Chinese merchants who settled there until the Khmer Rouge tried to kill us." 

"Aha, well then. I suppose now is the part where I have to tell you about my Uncle Gras. A beast of a man. He died about two years ago. In his youth he was a French colonial administrator, he spent a couple years in Saigon." 

Britney stopped walking. 

Emily continued on. 

"What did he do!?" Britney shouted. 

Emily turned around and stopped. 

"He wasn't a soldier. If that's what you're worried about. All he ever did was shuffle paperwork. But he was a true believer in the French Empire. He would often talk about the soldiers that we used to maintain order in Indochina near the end. Soldiers of the Waffen SS. And to his dying day he carried a massive chip on his shoulder about how the empire was betrayed at Dien Bien Phu." 

Britney strode up to Emily and growled. She didn't know what to say. So Emily said it. 

"You want to beat me up... don't you?" 

Britney let go and said, "no, no I'm not that crazy I just... I just can't believe..." 

"That I'm related to a person who played a role in your families exile? Albeit an incredibly peripheral one? Ce la vie. Weird coincidences, odd connections and sooner or later. If you go back far enough. Everyones relatives has done something awful to everyone else's relatives." 

Emily started walking again. Britney caught up and said. "The... Look goddamn it! I didn't even know my family were refugees until Pauline uncorked my subconscious. I'm still... I'm still working on what she did to me but it's..." 

"It's weird isn't it? But you've been working on this stuff longer than I have. It sounds like you have other issues that you would rather discuss than this magical stuff. If I was a complete simpleton you would probably wonder if I was as much of a brutal bastard as my uncle. But you already know the answer to that. So you are probably wondering about my feelings about the... Unpleasantness in my nations former colonies." 

"Unpleasantness? Unpleasantness! There was a war, and another war and a war after that. Millions died and you call it unpleasantness?!" Britney shrieked.

"Oui, that's the... best word I have for it. I imagine your feelings about it are complicated by the fact that you now live in a nation that was responsible for a significant amount of this... Unpleasantness?" 

"It wasn't..." Britney groaned and tried to collect her thoughts. They were approaching her home. Emily stopped at the gate and said, "without your permission, I go no further. But I've really enjoyed talking to you." 

Britney gestured for Emily to come with. They sat on a gazebo on the front lawn in silence for a good long while until Britney asked. 

"Were you right? Or your uncle. If the French empire had remained. Do you think all of that... Unpleasantness would have been avoided?" 

"No, world war three happened. It just happened in places like Africa, the Middle East, South America and Indochina. The communists wanted a fight, the western allies wanted a fight. All out nuclear war or tank columns charging across the Fulda Gap was too horrifying. So... So we took it out on the third world. Besides hair color one of the things I have in common with Jackie is a knowledge of history and a residual shame about it. I don't think my case of white guilt is quite as bad as hers though. For one simple reason." 

Emily took a sip from a glass of water and explained. 

"Humans are the most powerful species on Earth. And according to Pauline and Jackie we are fairly powerful throughout the multiverse. We are cruel, crude, vicious, creative and collectively insane. Jackie is a real goody two shoes. Pauline... She was a goody two shoes. Now she is turning into something else. I'm still not sure what. But from their perspective they see the mayhem and atrocities committed by their relatives and countrymen as their crime as well. What they fail to realize is that these crimes would have happened even if the American empire had never existed. Because that's the nature of empire, empires roll in where the natives are powerless to resist. The natives are usually powerless to resist because they are so busy killing each other to bother with the work of building a developed nation. A developed nation is not the birthright of all humanity. They are rare and difficult things that require a huge amount of work and knowledge." 

Emily finished her water and reached for a nearby garbage can. 

"And they can break, very... Easily." 

Emily squeezed the glass until it shattered. The remnants fell into the can. It was a trick that Emily had picked up years ago. It was dramatic and if she did it right there wouldn't be any blood. There was this time. A small trickle which would heal quickly. 

Britney was dumbfounded. 

Emily put her hand down and said. "I just wanted to say, if I haven't said it before. Thank you. I really owe you one." 

"For what?" Asked Britney. 

"You, or at least your face and gun invaded my dreams a few weeks ago. I've had a recurring nightmare for years involving my youngest brother. You stopped it and I can't thank you enough for that." 

Britney stammered out, "you're welcome." 

"I had a cat, Mr Montrose. Mr Montrose was the nicest cat you've ever seen. He was huge and cuddly and just the best mouser I've ever seen. I was there for his birth and I raised him from a kitten. To celebrate his eighth birthday my youngest brother tortured Mr Montrose to death. Do you know what I did to my brother because of this?" 

Britney shook her head. 

"I cried. That was all I could do. My brother is growing up fast. There's the distinct possibility that he is going to find his way into the corporate world where he will use whatever power he has to enrich himself at the expense of everyone and everything else. Someday he is probably going to get married, have children. Like other psychopaths he will play the game of being in society. He will conceal the darkness within him just enough to get by. He will continue to spread pain and misery. But his most toxic legacy will probably be his children. If he has them, God I pray he is sterile." 

"How do you know that he will have children? How do you know that a woman will fall in love with him?" Britney interrupted. 

"If you had met him you would know. He is very handsome, he is also a charmer. I've... I've seen the way girls react to him. The only reason why I know he hasn't lost his virginity yet is because he would boast about it. It's only a matter of time. He has this... Presence to him. The reason why I have faith in Jackie and Pauline because they can sense that there was something wrong with him." 

"Why are you telling me all this? To warn me in case I ever meet your brother to not be... seduced by him?" 

"No, I tell you all this because when you entered my dream you shot him. And you shot him for a damn good reason. Because he was going to kill me. Someday you might have to do it for real." 

Britney swallowed and asked. "You... Want to kill your brother?" 

"No... I... I know that I don't have it in me and I don't expect you to." 

"Then what do you want?" 

Emily thought for a moment. "What do I want? Hm... If you had asked me that a week ago I would have said. 'To be free of my asshole brother.' You have granted me that wish. Now..? Well, that's the funny thing. Apparently magic is a thing and I can use it to get all sorts of things. So why not be bold? Why not ask for the moon? I would like to create a world where we have learned to move past war. I want this history of shame and darkness to lift off our planet. But I have no idea how to accomplish this." 

Britney finished her glass of water and said, "I might."


	11. Beach day.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pauline is determined to repair the damage she has already done to the timeline and part of this is making sure that the... In this timeline. Notorious beach day photo happens. 
> 
> She has help this time. 
> 
> Warning. Fanservice heavy on the first part. Fan disservice follows.

The days of summer stretched on. 

Pauline continued to compose her training syllabus. 

As one would expect they hit a snag. Pauline and Jackie could phase their eyes into an ommatidia state at will but Britney and Emily couldn't without tremendous effort and complete expenditure of their limited magical budget. 

Pauline diagnosed the problem as a lack of energy from the dimension of magic. Jackie offered a solution. 

"How about we all go take a dip in a well?" 

Pauline replied, "we could try that. But there's something I'd like to try. I want to unwind Star Butterfly." 

"Unwind..." Jackie gasped, "haven't you said that when the other you did that it was unbelievably brutal?" 

"It was, but I think that was the first time any version of me tried that. I think I might be a bit better at it after practicing on you three. I think... Yeah, I think I know how I want to do this." 

Pauline extended Star and Marco an invitation. For a day at the beach. 

Jackie, Emily, Pauline and Britney showed up at the beach first and made sure everything was in place. 

"What if Star and Marco don't show up?" Asked Britney. 

"Oh, they will show up. And if they get lost or something then I suppose it will just be our beach day, not theirs." Replied Pauline. 

Britney nodded and went to a booth to get changed. She walked back onto the beach wearing a tidy one piece blue bathing suit. The other girls nodded in approval, then Pauline went to get changed. She came out wearing a red two piece suit. Britney observed, "you know I still can't believe how you look nowadays. I mean... Wow." 

"Yeah I still can't believe it either. Who would have thought months of dedicated strength training would improve your physique? Your turn, Emily." 

Emily went to get dressed. She came out wearing an orange one piece suit. Emily felt a bit underwhelming. But Britney gave her a wolf whistle and that made her feel a bit less self conscious. 

Jackie stretched, grabbed her pack and went in the booth. 

"What do you think she's going to wear?" Asked Emily. 

"Well, she brought her surfboard. So she's probably going to wear a bulky full body wet suit. You know, the kind of thing that wouldn't look out of place on an oil... Rig." Britney went silent as Jackie walked out of the booth wearing a two piece sea foam green bathing suit. 

They all looked at her and almost involuntarily started curling their toes. Jackie smiled back at them and grabbed her surfboard. Jogging out into the water. 

Pauline shook herself out of her stupor and looked around. "Okay, food, camera, towels. Looks like we have everything except Star and..." 

Thud! 

Marco had just crashed into the sand at their feet. 

Star drifted down on Cloudy. Marco was stammering a bit. Emily offered to help him up but Star said. "Don't, it was his fault he fell off. He was... distracted by something." 

Emily looked at Star. She was paralyzed with fear. Pauline hadn't been kidding about this chick. 

Britney remained... Cool. 

Pauline's training had made them incredibly sensitive to magical energies. Star and the wand's presence were spinning up their abilities. They could see every energetic element of Star Butterfly's body. 

It wasn't quite as bad as when the older Pauline had seen Star's energetic body the first time off in the future. But it was still pretty horrifying. As opposed to a luminous butterfly being Britney and Emily saw Star as a gray skeleton with spiky rings spinning around various parts of her body and some kind of awful sludge flowing around in a quantum superposition around her body. 

Star looked at Emily and Britney and asked, "are you okay? You both look kinda green." 

"They are fine, so, how have things been? How's your mother?" Asked Pauline. 

"Still mad as hell at you. But it's funny, she's... She's really mellowed out. She's doing better than I've ever seen her. Honestly the only reason why I came was because I was hoping that maybe I'd learn a few things from you. I hear you're teaching nowadays?" 

"I am." 

Marco was still laying face down on the beach, staring at Jackie out in the water. Even after everything he still had a look on his face that was only missing heart shaped pupils. 

Pauline sighed and shouted out to Jackie. "Yo, Thomas! would you be okay with teaching Marco how to surf?" 

"Sure." Jackie shouted back. 

Pauline picked Marco up by his neck and whispered in his ear. "Well, go on, get out there." And smacked him on the butt. 

"You sure you can trust him?" Asked Britney as Marco dashed towards the water. 

"Eh, I trust Jackie... Kinda. So, while they are doing that..." 

Emily, Britney and Pauline looked at Star with oddly predatory expressions. 

"What's... Going on?" Asked Star. 

"Oh nothing, nothing at all." Replied Pauline as she reached into Star's bag and pulled out the wand. 

Pauline breathed deeply as she took a hit of power from the thing. "Mind if I use this for a moment?" Asked Pauline. 

"Sure, I mean, it's not like you haven't already reconfigured it." Replied Star... deadpan. 

Pauline looked at Emily and said, "kneel." 

Emily did so as Pauline cast Moon's knotted laser sword spell. 

Pauline lightly tapped Emily on each shoulder and said. "Congratulations Emily Lavoisier. You are now a full fledged magical girl." 

Pauline disengaged the sword element and touched Emily on the forehead. Emily's holographic wings emerged fully. Their design was complex. Four wings, one set curving up, one set curving down with many feathery elements. The defining colors were silver and orange. Emily closed her eyes, when she opened them they had taken on a diamond pattern. 

Emily cried as she saw the vastness of creation for the first time. She stood up and exclaimed, "Merci, merci beaucoup!"

Britney kneeled as well. Pauline reactivated the sword and repeated the ritual. 

Britney's wings emerged. They were still black but looked significantly less riveted. Six wings, but more bird like than their previous incarnation. Britney stood up and looked at Emily and Pauline. She extended her arms for a hug. Pauline and Emily obliged. 

Star kinda stood to the side awkwardly. 

Pauline tossed the wand back into Star's pack and said. "Well, now we arrive at a curious point. Britney, do you want to explain what's going on?" 

"Star, we... All four of us have been training, learning magic. But there's things about magic that we know that you don't know. We're all able to see things inside you that are just horrifying and I think all three of us want to help get those things out of you." 

Pauline's, Britney's and Emily's wings faded. 

"Okay... and if I say no?" Star asked. 

"Then we won't bother you about it anymore." Said Pauline. 

"But if you could see what we see right now..." Said Emily. 

Star exhaled and said, "okay, I suppose I'm in. Just don't de power me like you did my mother." 

Pauline nodded and all four of them walked off to a secluded spot in the nearby dunes. Britney laid out a towel and gestured for Star to lie down on it. Emily and Britney took spots on Star's left and right while Pauline sat next to Star's head as they began symmetrically gesturing. 

It was difficult. 

More difficult than any other time. 

Star just lied there confused as these three other girls didn't seem to be doing anything but flapping their fingers in the wind.

Pauline stopped and took a drink. She noticed Jackie and Marco were walking up. 

"Done surfing?" Pauline asked. 

"Not by a long shot. But there's no way I'm going to miss this." 

Jackie set down her surfboard opposite Pauline, just outside the range of the energetic manipulations and sat down. As did Marco. Jackie took some potato chips out of a pack and watched the event with rapt attention. 

Pauline resumed gesturing. 

It was subtle, soft, careful, practiced. Pauline couldn't help but think that it was the complete opposite of the first time that her older self had done this. For the first ten minutes Star looked kinda bored. Then she started breathing shallow. 

"Take a look at this!" Britney exclaimed. 

There was flesh rising out of Star's right wrist. Pauline observed, "interesting, did you ever break this arm?"

"Yeah, on a monster hunt when I was ten. Fell off a mountain." Star explained. 

The girls continued gesturing. 

Star's body began to tremble. She rolled over and hunched over. Star's wings began to come out. She began to whimper softly as the wings gently emerged. 

After an agonizingly long time the wings emerged to their full size. Britney and Emily looked closely as the wings smoothed out the quantum superposition of the sludge. 

Star stood up. Facing Pauline, she began to tremble as her body phased into an odd gray color. The twitching soon turned into a vibration. 

Star began to retch. She tried to hold it in but Pauline said, very firmly. "Let it out." 

Pauline stood to the side as something incomprehensibly awful began to weep from Star's wings. It was black and green and waxy and had the unmistakable shapes of dozens of incomplete magical monstrous creatures writhing in it. Words didn't exist to describe how foul it smelled. But as it fell from Star's flapping wings her coloring phased more and more from gray to gold until finally it was all gone. 

Star opened her eyes. 

She could see the red thread running from her to Marco. 

She could see how these other four girls could see now. She knew that this was just one such time among many and somehow she knew that this was her favorite time. Every other time felt so raw, so forced, so brutal. Star smiled and said, "thank you." 

Then she passed out. Falling into Britney's arms as her wings retracted. Her golden hue faded. Britney lowered her down on her side on the sand. 

"She should probably be symmetrical." Said Pauline. 

"Yeah, but if she starts throwing up we don't want her choking on her own vomit." Replied Britney. 

"Will you look at this stuff!?" Said Jackie. 

Emily looked closely at the thirty or so pounds of whatever this was that had fallen out of Star's wings and observed, "kinda reminds me of earwa..." It had been smoldering alarmingly. As it coalesced into a solid mass it burst into flames. Burning like a tire fire. Everyone retreated from it as it burned with choking black smoke full of the ghosts of angry warnicorns. 

Star came back to consciousness and exclaimed. "Holy fuck! That was inside me?!" 

"Apparently." Said a somewhat horrified Marco. 

"Marco!" Exclaimed Star. 

She staggered to her feet and hugged him. They walked off together. 

"Well, that was interesting." Observed Britney.

"Yes it was." Replied Jackie as the last few bits of the contamination burned down to nothing she kicked beach sand over it and doused the ashes with water from a nearby stream. 

The rest of the beach day went perfectly. Pauline, Britney, Jackie, Emily, Marco and Star swam, played in the sand, surfed and took many many pictures. The picture that has troubled Pauline so much became just one in a stack of wonderful memories. Britney revealed that she knew how to surf as well. Pauline was able to take some very nice pics of Jackie and Britney surfing together. Pauline completely failed at it. She could balance on a board on land, but a board in water was another story entirely. Emily couldn't work up the nerve to try. The day ended with all six of them huddled around a fire cooking s'mores. 


	12. Do you believe in magic?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Star and Pauline discuss the future.

Star and Marco made it back home. While Star was putting away her things. She realized something. That she was still wearing the mysterious bathing suit. StarFan had gone completely bananas when she first saw this thing. She screamed about it being evidence of a crime. 

But when she had worn it to the beach, StarFan had been completely cool. Jackie had been cool as well. 

Star brushed it off. It had all just been a nonsensical coincidence. This bathing suit had been tested for DNA and none had been found. It wasn't evidence of anything but a disturbing coincidence and it was the only suit around in her size.

Still...

She stretched one of shoulder bits, looked at a manufacturers tag and asked out loud. 

"Where did this thing come from?" 

Star locked her doors and took off the bathing suit as she went to take a shower. 

Following her shower she went back to her room to dry off. She wandered around her room thinking about everything that had happened earlier in the day. Still the bathing suit thing bothered her. She put on a gown and tossed the suit in a hamper. 

"Angie didn't know it was there, Marco didn't know it was there. Where the heck did it come from?" Star asked out loud. 

Star took out the picture. StarFan had been adamant that she give it to Father Time at the earliest opportunity. She had even written the words 'beach day' on the bottom. 

Star reached for the wand and briefly considered hitting the picture with a flame throwing spell. 

But she realized that would piss StarFan off and she had taken the precaution of taking numerous photos. StarFan had her own Polaroid images that she could probably deliver to Father Time. 

Star dropped the wand and the photo, rolled over onto her bed and punched a pillow a few times. StarFan had turned into this complete control freak and... 

Star looked at the wand. 

She thought back to finding Moon being examined by Hekapoo. 

The fear in her mother's eyes. Talking about this girl who had just shown up and started kicking everyone's butts. Star tried to explain what StarFan had done. But in the end there was only one reason why Star had been allowed to return to Echo Creek. Because Moon was so terrified of pissing of StarFan again that she didn't want to upset her by recalling her daughter. 

As her mother went to pieces River came and took her back to Echo Creek, assuring her. 

"I don't know what this StarFan girl wants. But you be careful with her. If she can reduce a woman like your mother to tears... I shudder to think what else she can do." 

"If she goes after Mewni again will you fight her?" 

"We will, all the Mewnian people will. But given our track record as of late... We would probably lose. So do everything you can not to enrage this... StarFan? Is that really her name?" 

"No her name is Pauline..."

"Long." 

Star snapped back to this moment. 

She looked through some other beach day photos. 

Everything had been so fun, so cool and so... Comfortable. Star shook her head at the thought of that odd crush she had on Britney a little while ago. And how different Britney was these days. StarFan had gotten Britney to calm down. That thought... It seized her. 

She had been so entranced to allow Britney to touch her energetically. 

And that French girl. 

And Jackie. 

A strange wave of delayed fear washed over her. Pauline could have... 

"No." Star said out loud. "She locked Mom out of using the wand. If she wanted to she could lock me too." 

Star looked closely at the wand. She looked at the miniature planets rotating almost imperceptibly slowly and silently inside the wand. 

StarFan had said some pretty wild stuff. 

Star looked closer... She looked so close that she could see... Algae. 

Then it dawned on her. At first she had thought that these were representations of Earth and Mewni. Then she noticed that neither of these planets looked like Earth and Mewni. And she knew exactly what Earth and Mewni looked like from outer space. But they were both growing... Algae. 

Star put the wand down and said, "odd." She reached for a phone. The sun was going down and she wanted to check to see if StarFan had made it home. 

The phone rang. 

"Hey Star." 

Star just could not get used to that new voice. "Hey... Um... Pauline, did... Did you made it home okay?" 

"Yeah, I'm with my Dad right now, what's up?" 

"Oh just... Listen, can you come over? Or can I come over? I want to talk to you face to face about some... Stuff... And I want it to just be us." 

"Okay, you can come over anytime you want." 

"Be right there!" Star said and shut off the phone. She grabbed her wand and almost summoned Cloudy when she realized that she was just wearing a robe. Not exactly a good flying outfit. 

Pauline was waiting in her room when Star drifted by on Cloudy. Star crawled in a window and the two of them just looked at each other for a moment. 

"You're nervous... What about?" Asked Pauline. 

"StarFa... Pauline as you... insist on calling yourself. I was wondering if we could talk about... The future." 

"Okay, I thought I filled you in on everything." 

"You did... It's just... My mother, she's... You really freaked her out." 

"Good." 

"Good?" 

"I thought I filled you in on the details. Jackie saw a bunch of other timelines. I only saw three. And on one of those Moon did a great deal of damage." 

"And I have to take your word for it!? What evidence do you have?" Star asked firmly. 

"Star, you know that Mewni has problems. Big ones and apparently your mother isn't the person to lead Mewni through those problems." 

"And you think I can?" 

"I know you can do better than your mother. I've seen it. I'm not sorry I de powered your mother. I defended myself against her. She told you that part, right? And you know why she attacked me...? Right?" 

"Because she and Rhombulus killed the king of the... Oh no." 

"Yeah, finally putting two and two together aren't you?" Pauline said in an amused tone. 

"When the monsters find out that their King was still alive and that... Oh no." 

"When the monsters find out... If they find out? Who knows when that will be!" Said Pauline in an amused tone. 

"It could have already happened." 

"That it could have, Star... That it could... have..." 

Pauline began to pick her teeth flirtatiously. Star snapped. 

"Okay, fine... According to you you saw three timelines. One where I fucked everything up! One where you and me went crazy together and apparently we feed on vampires and one where everything worked out for everyone but me and then you rescued me. You... You said Mewni became a libertarian paradise. What's libertarian mean?" 

Pauline stopped picking and got much more serious. 

"Libertarian? Well, there's 2 definitions. One is a member of the libertarian party and the other is a philosophy of reducing government to its smallest possible size. As some have joked, 'a government small enough to drown it in a bathtub." 

"And if we do that it will calm the monsters down?" 

"Possibly, but I doubt it. The monsters... Still might want to take revenge on you. Like the fall of Iraq and the rise of Shia Iraq. The monsters could use the powers they gain via government reforms under democracy to impose a new system where they are the tyrants and Mewmans are subjugated. That's happened here on Earth a few times. With things like the Hutu's and Tutsis in Rwanda. Post apartheid South Africa and so on. Libertarian dimension had Marco in charge though. So perhaps you should just leave everything to him?" 

"No... I don't think we're going to do that." Star replied. 

Pauline started picking her teeth again and said. "Well... There's a thing to consider. Something kinda... Slippery and dangerous. The Mewni that the older version of me went to was armed to the teeth. Perhaps there were no reprisals there because everyone was... Armed to the teeth?" 

Pauline went over to her computer and looked up some notes. 

"The closest thing I know of to what I saw Mewni become is found... Here. The Probability Broach graphic novel. Would you like to read it with me and have me provide a commentary? It will be as close as I can easily get to showing you that version of Mewni." 

"And so... Yeah, that's the Probability Broach. But there's just a little more to the story than that. Obviously in that timeline, in that universe... things worked out. Maybe it was because of certain advancements in weapons technology and other technologies. Maybe some things didn't happen there that did happen here. But here's the important point. And I'm saying this as someone who has never seen the Broadway production of Hamilton. Hamilton did not entirely support the idea of an overarching superstate as we have it today. Someone once wrote him a letter talking about the idea of law enforcement by Federal Sherifs who could go anywhere in the United States and arrest anyone they wanted if they had a warrant to do so. Hamilton found the idea to be insane and unworkable to the point where he laughed at it. With that said Hamilton was a big supporter of having a powerful military. And that's gonna cost money. What do we use to justify this big expensive military? Well, we got to have an enemy. For awhile the enemy was the British Empire threatening to come back and claim their lost colonies." 

Pauline sighed. 

"The British Empire was there. During the civil war they came tantalizingly close to declaring their support for the Confederacy which would have cracked the US up into smaller... More manageable pieces. The British Mercantile Empire was pretty much always there until it became a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Empire. So... Yeah, perhaps there's more than just the obvious reasons why everyone in the Probability Broach is armed to the teeth." 

Star wondered for a moment, she was a bit overwhelmed. "So what would you recommend?"

"Ah, to understand the American Mercantile Empire? I recommend starting with Confessions of an Economic Hit Man." 

Star took down a note and replied. "Okay... And that will allow us to create this... Better Mewni you saw?" 

"Creating... Mewnian... Infrastructure...? Well, as I said, I'd talk to Marco and Ferguson about that. They were the ones who pulled it off. Or you could go directly to the Economic Hit Men and ask them to help you. When they will mostly be helping themselves to Mewni's resources. If you do that... I'll tell you what... I'll give you a freebie." 

Pauline printed up a PDF of articles, notes and other things that she had compiled for a science project. She stapled it together and gave it to Star. 

"There, contained in those papers is... Theoretically everything you need to know to create a molten salt nuclear reactor. However... Mewni doesn't have the technology to make the technology to make the technology to make a nuclear reactor. Those require superalloys, calipers, precision welding, Geiger counters. But if you have a power source like that then the EHMs will be a little more... Cautious with their excesses perhaps? But I doubt it." 

Star looked through the papers. They might as well have been written in hieroglyphs. 

"Okay, I don't... Know what any of this is or what you just said." 

"Oy... This is going to take a lot of work. There's so much you have to learn about... But for now..."

Pauline tapped Star's right cheek. 

"For the immediate future, we got... Literal magic and the economic hit men don't."

Star looked at the documents closely and said, "wait, this is... Nuclear technology... I use nuclear... Oh what was it? Nuclear butterfly..."

Pauline reached over, scooped up the wand and pointed it out a window. Making a polite request of the wand. "Please don't!" 

The wand... Stood down. 

Pauline sighed in relief as she pointed the wand at Star. 

"Okay, lesson one. We put better safety restrictions on stuff." 

She took away the nuclear reactor papers. 

"Lesson two. We start learning about nuclear technology the way the professionals do. By hearing stories of what happens when one encounters a criticality accident." 

Pauline tossed the wand on the bed and said. "Eclipsa is still on the loose. So I've got to remind you about a potential issue with one of her spells. The All Seeing Eye spell. Do you remember..." 

"Yeah I remember... Eclipsa turned it up a notch in some other timeline and some other me almost died because of it. Yeah... I remember that."


	13. Target acquired

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The girls debate what to do with their newfound powers. 
> 
> Britney has a suggestion.

Jackie stood there holding her sword. 

Her first motion was en guard. 

She walked in a circle around an imaginary opponent. 

A slash. 

A parry. 

A feint. 

Her movements were fast, but conservative. Precise and showed excellent economy of energy. She was always moving, one fluid motion into another. 

Jackie stood still and sheathed her sword. 

"Very good, your technique has improved considerably." Pauline said. 

"Practice makes perfect." Jackie replied. 

"Yeah, practice and beating the stuffing out of us for two weeks straight." Said Emily as she walked up. 

"Oh come on, you loved it. If you didn't you would have taken your axes and gone home." Jackie replied as she took the sword and scabbard off her belt and picked up a padded training blade. 

Britney walked up. 

They faced each other and bowed, Britney drew a pair of training swords. Jackie left hers on her belt. 

Jackie stretched while she waited for Britney to attack. 

Britney charged forward. 

Using an old samurai technique, Jackie drew her training sword and used it to knock aside Britney's blades. Reversing the slash Jackie rested her 'blade' against Britneys neck. 

"Going to have to do a little better than that." Jackie said somewhat smugly. 

Britney backed up and changed the position of her blades. She had one forward and one behind her. Jackie had an idea what she was going to do. As she charged Jackie swatted the forward blade aside and moved to strike Britney with the guard of her sword before Britney could strike with the second blade. 

Instead Britney kicked Jackie. Jackie recovered and pressed the tip of her blade against Britneys chest. 

"Not quite, but better." Jackie replied brightly. 

Britney backed off and asked loudly, "why are we doing this? I mean, swords are obsolete. If any of us get into a fight we are probably going to use guns, or some other ranged weapon, right?" 

"Because it's not just a fight, it's a conversation. We learn a lot about you as you go through these motions." Pauline said as she moved in closer. "Here." 

Pauline relieved Britney of one of her swords and said, "why don't you try fighting with one before you try fighting with two?" 

"Jackie's sword is longer than mine." 

"Well, it was your decision to focus your edged weapon training on butterfly swords. It's not too late to swap this design out for something else, like say a jian." 

"No, these still feel more right to me than any other sword I've tried." 

Britney took a deep breath and lurched forward in a series of bizarre, almost drunken motions. For the first time in weeks she was able to get inside of Jackie's swords. 

"Not bad..." Pauline observed, "but there's something you should consider." 

Britney saw Pauline's furtive movement and head butted her. 

Pauline was shoved back and said. "Good, very good." 

Emily picked up her foam padded training axe, pointed at Jackie and said. "My turn." 

Jackie and Emily faced each other. 

"Begin!" Announced Pauline. 

Jackie stepped forward and tried to slash Emily with the 'sword'. Emily parried the blow with her 'axe.' Emily allowed Jackie to recover and try again. Another slash, another parry. Jackie attempted to thrust, but Emily was just too quick. She hooked her axe into Jackie's sword and disarmed her. 

Jackie backed up. Emily wasn't even trying. 

"It's ridiculous, I'm flooded with the memories of other versions of me. But none of them know how to fight. Throughout the multiverse it seems that I only incarnate as some kind of a sex goddess." 

"Come on Jackie, I'm sure there's at least one version of you who knows how to fight. I mean, weren't you interested in fencing before you got interested in skateboarding?" Said Pauline. 

"Fencing is not the same as sword-fighting. A fencing foil is lighter than any sword and it emphasizes technique, rules. Not deranged melee combat. Which Emily is absurdly good at. And yes there is a version of me who did a lot... A lot of fighting but she had some kind of a magic sword which could cut literally anything if she retained the will to wield it." 

"That explains a lot about your technique." Observed Emily. "Do you think you could get another one of those swords?" 

Jackie froze. Words shivered through her mind. "Zzlave... We zzhall mate." 

"Uh, I'd really rather not. I don't think the guy who created it even exists in this multiverse and if he does, I really really really really don't ever want to meet him." 

Emily nodded and asked. "So, we can all fight now and do some basic magic and we have... Mastered that symmetrical energy technique. So, what are we going to do with these abilities?" 

Jackie stretched out and said, "don't know. Perhaps we could become like... Some kind of magical A Team? Doing things that no one else can do? For a price." 

Pauline giggled and snorted at that. "Yeah right. Jackie you do know that the A Team were mercenaries. Family friendly mercenaries who never killed or tortured anyone, but mercenaries nonetheless." 

"Oh come on, you know what I mean." 

"I suppose I do. And it's an idea." Pauline looked at her hands and asked, "what can we do with these abilities? Well, building off of Jackie's idea I suppose we could offer something like reiki. But with... Results. How about you? What do you think?" 

Britney replied, "Emily and I have been talking and... We want to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party." 

Pauline whistled and replied, "ambitious, certainly. So ambitious I can't see how it can be done. But, I'm open to ideas." 

"Ideas? Come on, we have literal magic. And it's really powerful magic too. You beat half of the Magical High Commission and Queen Moon singlehandedly. Why can't we take down a bunch of damn politicians?" Asked Britney. 

"Moon was a serious opponent, as were Omnitraxus and Rhombulus. But they were just a handful of people. In order to take down a government. Let alone that government we would have to incapacitate or more likely kill hundreds, thousands of people." Explained Pauline. 

Jackie voiced her opinion. "The CIA has toppled all sorts of governments. The Chinese government is bound to be prepared for attacks from outside." 

"What about time travel? Wasn't all this caused by some older you mucking around with the past, our present? We go back in time and kill chairman Mao?" Britney asked. 

Pauline laughed, "um, no, first of all the time travel that created the current timeline was the result of a complete accident that I couldn't hope to replicate and I don't want to replicate. It only applies to information and energy. And even if I could replicate that we could only go as far back as our current physical incarnations. All of us were born long after Mao passed away and even if there were a way, if we killed Mao in... Let's say, 1944. We make it look like a Japanese bomb hit just the right target. Killing him would upend a huge amount of history. None of us might ever be born and we would be looking at a huge bundle of paradoxes." 

"Dimensional scissors. Like in X Men First Class. We portal in, grab the highest ranking party members and then drop them from a thousand feet." Asked Emily. 

Jackie replied. "We would have to do that hundreds, thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of times... To thousands of people. Sooner or later they would probably develop countermeasures against us." 

"There's also the fact that these dimensional scissors aren't as reliable as the ones Hekapoo makes. I've been lucky with this set so far but sooner or later we would probably screw up, and be captured. At which point we're back in 'rape the lining out of us' territory." Explained Pauline. 

"Okay, we use the scissors to steal a few of their nuclear bombs and rig them to go off. We make it look like they tripped and fell on their own nukes." Said Britney. 

Jackie replied. "That would still kill millions, run the risk of triggering world war three and... have you ever tried to hot wire a nuclear bomb? I have not, but I'm told that it is quite a project. According to a documentary I saw a long time ago American bombs are specifically designed to not be tampered with." 

"Okay, what about monsters? We trick monsters from the rest of the multiverse to attack the Chinese government." Said Britney. 

"That wouldn't work for three reasons, one, I don't imagine that any of those monsters could be convinced to attack the Chinese. Two, and this is something you know from your own experience. Marco Diaz with his bare hands could fight most of Ludo's goons to a standstill. How well do you think those goons would do against Chinese soldiers with guns? Three, unleashing inter-dimensional monsters on China would probably serve as little more than a dinner bell for the Chinese to launch a war against the wider multiverse." Said Pauline. 

Jackie added, "yeah, and no offense but given how the Chinese react to exotic species of animals. They would probably decree that monster gallbladder is a cure for cancer. The monsters would be extinct within a few years. The treaty of St. Crocus might be extinct in all but name but if we shatter it completely we will be running the risk of spreading Earth's tyrannies to the wider multiverse." 

"Do you know... Anything, any kind of magical spell that could help?" Asked Britney. 

"Can't think of anything, even with my notes from the Book of Spells. For instance, there's a spell in that book that can stop the rotation of a planet and shut off gravity. Can't use that against the Chinese government without also fucking up everything else on the planet. Or a spell that ties your shoes and sets a building on fire. That would only eliminate one building at a time. All the love spells have serious side effects. The destructive spells aren't as effective as typical earthling weapons. Britney... I know what you're going for here. It's the old, 'Columbus scares the natives by threatening to steal the moon' trick when all he's doing is predicting an eclipse. And even if you wanted to do something else Columbus did, like threatening the natives with guns. There's still the fact that we would be hugely outnumbered. Sooner or later we would run out of 'bullets." Explained Pauline. 

"What about a Death Note?" Asked Emily. 

Pauline stretched out and replied. "A Death Note? Bold, spicy... and utterly impossible. Death Note's don't exist, at least not in this world. Not to my knowledge, don't think they exist anywhere else I've been... and if they did exist then the use of one would condemn your soul. It would also tie you to the fate of a Shinegami. I don't think that would work out. It would be a way of getting rid of the party. Or any other assholes. Just find an Internet terminal where one can do anonymous research, scribble down a bunch of names. Tick tick tick... Pow!" 

Pauline picked up Jackie's padded sword and started making gestures with it. 

"Perhaps we could write in really wacky deaths. Within the rules of the Death Note itself. Thousands of party bureaucrats found in incredibly humiliating places. Or make it look like they... Tripped and fell on a bioweapon. Heck we could write in the names of the North Korean government. The mullahs in Iran, a select few bastards in Syria. If they were taken down all at once it could be chalked up as the wrath of a vengeful God. Or perhaps it could be blamed on the CIA. Or other intelligence agencies. I mean, that was briefly mentioned as a plot point in Death Note itself. But as I said, they don't exist." 

"What's to stop us from making one?" Asked Britney. 

Pauline stopped swinging the sword, flexed it across her shoulders and said. "Don't know, can't help but imagine that there's something that would stop us. I don't remember off the top of my head where the Death Note's came from but they definitely involved death gods and those creepy fucks seemed like way more trouble than they were worth."

Britney went to her backpack, pulled out a notebook and said. "Come on, we don't need any death gods, if anyone can do this, we can. We infuse this with a bunch of crazy sigils and magic. We start writing down names. We lay off the potato chips for a few days. Don't run around screaming about becoming gods. No one will ever know it was us!" 

Jackie stated. "Oh great, you're back." 

"Who's back?" Asked Britney. 

"Subconscious Britney. Do we have to throw you in an ice bath again?" 

Pauline continued. "Listen, you're both showing initiative and that's good. But this... You're talking about some seriously dark magic and while that's not outside the realm of possibility. It would certainly draw the attention of the MHC." 

"So what? Haven't you proven that you can take them?" Asked Emily. 

"Possibly, but even if we neutralized them it would be very likely that some version of L would come after us with all the resources of all the worlds governments. Unless we wiped out practically all of the worlds governments at the same time at which point we would be the gods of this world. But even if we did it slowly and carefully sooner or later we would be found out, hunted down and either killed or captured. Then our Death Note would fall into someone else's hands. Even if we could avoid that. There's certain rules that seem to be reflected across various magical traditions. One of the big ones seems to be that you can't curse others without being cursed yourself. Think about it. The cliche of the old gypsy woman who goes around cursing people. You would think that if she had that kind of power she should be living in a castle with dozens of servants waiting on her hand and foot. Scared out of their wits that if they screw up she will curse them to turn into goats, or cover them in carbuncles or something. But no, the gypsy woman is always this poor, lonely, hated figure that wanders from town to town, begging for scraps of food because she spent her... Let's call it magical capital. Spreading curses instead of helping people. This..." 

Pauline tapped the book. 

"Creating something like a Death Note would probably mean that you would accrue curses like fleas on a stray dog." 

"You're telling us that freeing over a billion people from tyranny isn't enough of a prize to risk our lives?" Asked Emily. 

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Creating something like a Death Note, even with the intention of destroying tyranny would certainly consign our souls to hell." Said Jackie seriously. 

Britney hissed, "I don't believe in any of that." 

Jackie asked, "you don't? Even when you have seen demons with your own eyes?" 

"Tom? That's Mewnian hell. Mewnian hell is not our problem." Replied Britney. 

"The question remains. Are you willing to die for this?" 

Britney looked at the notebook and growled. "Grr, it's just not fair! I mean, they are totally evil! They looted the country, killed millions. They swing their power and propaganda around all over the world and send people to concentration camps! It's just not fair that they can just keep doing what they are doing!" 

Pauline walked over, put away the book and hugged Britney, whispering. "I know, they are awful. But this isn't the way." 

"Well then what is the way?" Asked Emily. 

Pauline laid her hands on Emily and Britney's shoulders and said. "I don't know, but we will all think about it and if we can figure out a way to do this without dying or being condemned to hell. We will... Well. I'll help you. Jackie?" 

Jackie exhaled heavily and said. "Eh, I said that I was tired of being either a good little hero or a sex goddess. Knocking over a bunch of corrupt, organ harvesting lunatics sounds like defying that trope somewhat." 

Emily stood up and joined in the hug.


	14. The fifth teammate.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A brainstorming session is interrupted.

"Well, so much for idea number twenty three. Who wants to try for twenty four?" 

Jackie leaned back and stretched her neck. 

Emily hung her head in resignation. 

Britney gritted her teeth. 

As Pauline wiped off the dry erase board in Britney's living room everyone was clearly exhausted. The four girls had been brainstorming ideas on how to destroy the Chinese communist government and so far all they had come up with were things that would probably either destroy the world. Or just get themselves killed. 

"We should take a break. This is clearly getting us nowhere." Said Emily. 

Pauline nodded in the affirmative and went over to the little shielded box that they kept their electronic devices in while talking about overthrowing governments and was about to put the battery back in her cell phone. There was a message waiting from Star. It contained a picture of a contract that the Mewnian government had just signed with a paving company. Pauline smiled and went to get something to drink. 

"Maybe we need a new perspective. Perhaps we should bring in a guy on this?" Asked Britney. 

"Okay, who do you have in mind?" Asked Jackie. 

"I don't know. But didn't you say that bringing in a guy would technically make us a bunch of superheroes? not just a coven of magical girls? Oh, and get me an orange soda while you're in there!" 

"Have you known superheroes to overthrow governments?" Asked Emily. 

Britney thought for a moment and said. "No... But that's superheroes. They can do anything. We're just a bunch of magical girls and when have you ever heard of magical girls overthrowing governments? 

Jackie laughed at the thought. "I know magical girls are a little more hard edged than they used to be. But... Wow. Yeah that's quite an image." 

"Britney snapped. "Then what's the point here? We spent all that time training as magical girls when we should have been training to become CIA agents?" 

Pauline handed Britney an orange soda and replied, "a lot of what we have learned over the past few weeks are techniques CIA agents use. Archival research, small arms, reading of facial micro expressions. All sorts of dirty tricks. But even the CIA hasn't been able to overthrow the Chinese communist government and they overthrow governments for a living." 

"I think we should go back to the sexual blackmail idea." Said Emily. 

Pauline flatly said. "No, just plain, no. We don't have Jeffery Epstein's resources. Never mind everything else that would be so fucked up by doing something like that. Perhaps we should..." 

"Black Manna." Jackie interrupted. 

"Uh... What?" Asked Pauline. 

Jackie stood up and stretched. "A couple years ago I went on this conspiracy theory kick. The weirder the better. Janna showed me some pretty weird stuff and then I found even weirder stuff. One of the not so weird sounding things was a thing called Black Manna." 

Jackie stood up and drew a circle and some dots on the dry erase board.

"This is Earth and these are satellites orbiting Earth. Most of them are harmless. Communications satellites, weather, reconnaissance, et cetera et cetera. The conspiracy theorists say not all of these satellites are harmless. Some might contain nuclear bombs, anti ballistic missile lasers and kinetic weapons." 

Jackie started sketching out a more detailed design. 

"Tungsten or depleted uranium darts. There probably isn't a power source capable of powering a laser to burn all the way from space to the surface of the Earth. But darts... Once they get through the upper atmosphere then gravity... Does the work for you. These darts are designed for a minimum of collateral damage. They don't touch down with the force of a nuke. We seize control of a ground based terminal, enter launch codes. Probably the same protocol as a nuclear launch. Enter GPS coordinates of the people we want to die... It would basically be a technological Death Note." 

Emily, Pauline and Britney looked closely at the sketch. Emily observed, "such a system would be illegal. A violation of numerous treaties preventing the weaponization of outer space. But the technology is feasible. The constellation of satellites that this would require could be disguised as spy satellites. If the Chinese have built such a system and they would be an excellent candidate to do so we could take control of it, use it and make it look like they tripped and fell on their own doomsday weapon. This... Could work." 

"Okay, how do we do this then? I mean... We would first need to prove such a system exists. Then we would have to learn the launch protocol, obtain the launch codes and probably take over the ground control station." Asked Pauline. 

"Really? You don't know a certain... Spell that could help us with that?" Asked Jackie in a coy tone. 

"What... You mean the All Seeing Eye? We can't use that! Eclipsa created it and if memory serves she has... some kind of super user ability that means that she would be onto us if we used..." 

A dimensional portal opened in the middle of the room. 

Eclipsa stepped out of it. She was caked in dust, wearing what looked like an outfit suited for a grueling desert trek. She took off a set of gloves and said, "Pauline can you give me a hand with this?" 

Pauline looked at Eclipsa's fingers. They looked like they were suffering another infestation of toxic magic. Pauline could sense the energetic signature and said, "you weren't kidding when you said that you were going to kill Glossarick." 

"Not the sort of thing I kid about." Replied Eclipsa seriously. 

Britney took Eclipsa to a bathroom where she was able to clean the desert dust off and got her some clean clothes. While Eclipsa showered Emily said, "well, she's here. Why don't we ask her if she would be in on this?" 

"Are you nuts? She just killed the first life form to achieve sentience in this universe and I created circumstances that led to the death of her daughter! She will not help us!" 

"Why not? I mean, we know what she can do." Said Jackie. "And she's probably in the mood for a little more destruction." 

"Okay fine, when she gets out of the shower I'll ask her." Said Pauline flatly. 

After a very long time Eclipsa got out of the shower. Eclipsa put on a bathrobe, sat down on a couch and said. "I think I need a lawyer." 

"What for?" Asked Britney. 

"I can't leave Earth. The Magical High Commission is going to hunt me through the multiverse for everything I've done. If I'm going to stay on Earth I'm going to need a job and a place to stay and a social security number or something. I'm a refugee. I'm..." 

Eclipsa began crying. 

Jackie leaned over and hugged her. 

Eclipsa pushed Jackie away, stopped crying and asked, "Miss Long. Why did you... Unwind? I think that's the word? Unwind my daughter?" 

Pauline explained, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Okay! I just couldn't help myself. She's just so... I mean... You remember that she tried really hard to kill

"Marco... Yes... Marco is a fine young man. He never did anything to her but stop her from..." 

"What am I supposed to do now?! My entire family is dead and I'm stuck on this planet!" 

"I know a good lawyer. I'll see what he can do for you." Said Britney. 

Eclipsa exhaled and said, "I haven't had a reason to say thank you to anyone in a very long time. So thank you." 

Eclipsa looked at the board and asked, "so... What were you doing before I showed up?" 

"We were talking about you, actually. Can you keep a secret?" Asked Emily. 

Eclipsa nodded in the affirmative. 

"Would you be willing to help us overthrow a government?" Asked Emily. 

"Which government?" 

"The Chinese communist government." 

"The Chinese... Okay, tell me about them. Why do you want to overthrow them?" 

"Because they are evil, tyrannical, power mad and have committed thousands of crimes against humanity. They killed over fifty million people." Said Britney. 

Eclipsa's jaw dropped. "Fifty... Million?" She sat down in a chair. "The battle of Bells Pond. That was the worst massacre in the monster war I saw. That was only 80 dead, fifty million? I can't... I can't fathom that." 

"And they have done a bunch of other things too. But you should probably do your own research and not take our word on it. But if you were to help us then all we would want from you is intelligence. Through the all seeing eye spell." Explained Jackie. 

"The all seeing eye?" Eclipsa asked, "you are familiar with its power requirements?" 

"Yes, we might have a way around that." Said Pauline. 

"Okay... For now, I'm... Tentatively with you." Eclipsa held up her hands and asked. "Now what are you going to do about this?" 

"Ah... Let's step outside." Said Pauline. "The last time we tried this we discharged most of the energy into the dimension of pillows. A place designed for such things. This time I want to see if I can collect and purify the energy myself." 

Eclipsa took her designated position with Pauline, Jackie, Britney and Emily standing around her. Pauline guided everyone into position about three feet away from Eclipsa. 

Pauline snapped her fingers, a holographic line appeared in her hand. Pauline very gently lowered it towards Eclipsa's hands. Once it made contact Pauline began pulling magic out of her. 

As was often the case when Pauline used this technique she saw how the damage had been created. Eclipsa had chased Glossarick across Baja California and when she finally confronted him she said. 

"I trusted you. I trusted you with my family and this... Is what you did?" 

"Yeah well... Sorry, but perhaps you shouldn't have trusted me. Old doesn't always mean wise." Replied Glossarick. 

Eclipsa held up her left hand. Almost as if by force of magnetism. 

"You're right... I'm sorry." Said Pauline. 

She saw Eclipsa cast the 'break the one who can't be broken' spell with a wand bought from Quest Buy. Glossarick faded from existence in much the same way as when Ludo had burned the book. 

The contamination started to weep from Eclipsas hands. Eclipsa said, "go ahead and take it all. Take it from me like you took it from Moon! I'm tired of magic and it's tired of me." 

"You're going to give up? That doesn't sound like you." Said Jackie. 

"Well what do you know about me?!" Eclipsa snapped. She spun around addressing each of them.

"None of you, none of you know me! I..." 

Eclipsa saw it and it made no sense. "Black Velvet Inferno. I cast Black Velvet Inferno on my own daughter. And all it did was turn her into a baby? And then..?" 

Jackie had seized control and was showing Eclipsa exactly what she needed to see.

Eclipsa saw all the way to the end. To the destruction of magic and said, "none of this makes any sense. Why would I? Why would she? Why would they? None of this makes any damn sense!!!" 

Emily and Britney pulled back. 

"She can go no further." Said Jackie in a clinical tone. 

"Shall we grant her her request?" Asked Pauline. 

"Well, it worked with Moon." Jackie said as she found the very last thread and began to pull. All the magic that remained within Eclipsa's body discharged into the four girls and into the Wong families backyard. 

For the first time their cheek marks all lit up. Pauline's were lightning bolts, Jackie's were seashells. Emily's were crescent moons and Britney's appeared to be roses. 

They backed away from Eclipsa. Her cheek marks dissolved into her face. Her skin went from deathly pale to a healthily toasted darker shade. Pauline and Jackie very carefully carried her inside to recover.

Eclipsa looked up at Jackie and said. "None of it makes any sense." 

Jackie caressed her face gently and said. "We swear, we swear that we will help you make sense of it." 


	15. The mark of an immature man.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Discussion of books and a desert music festival. 
> 
> Warning! Contains underage drug use.

Pauline was brushing her teeth. 

She looked over at her bed. 

Jackie was still sound asleep. 

Even after all this time she still found herself occasionally staring at Jackie. 

She had believed for the longest time that Jackie was going to go off in a different direction. That Jackie was going to abandon her and if that happened that would mean the end of everything that they had done together. Consigned to the dustbin of memory. 

But here they were, months later and they still slept in the same bed at every opportunity. 

Everything was so different now. Pauline had never been comfortable with her life. Now she actually looked forward to whatever came next. Even if what came next was absurd. 

She washed her mouth out, spat and turned on her phone. There was a reminder on there. That today was Emily's birthday. 

She wondered for a moment what this would entail. Britney would probably have something planned. Probably not a party bus this time. 

Pauline sat on a chair next to the bed and just watched Jackie sleep for a little while longer. 

She had learned so much from her. 

"Anyone ever tell you it's kinda creepy to watch someone sleep?" Asked Jackie. 

"Can't help it. You have a very pleasing form." Replied Pauline. 

Jackie smiled, opened her eyes and stretched, asking. "So what's on the docket for today?" 

"It's Emily's birthday. We're probably going to take some time off from plotting to overthrow governments and do something fun." 

"Oh? Like what?" 

"Don't know, that's more your department than mine." 

Jackie nodded and got out of bed. As she got dressed she asked. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you. What's your favorite book?" 

"Lepton's Wake. It's this really weird mystery novel." 

Pauline reached for her copy. 

"It's a story about a guy who vanishes and a police officer who goes looking for him. It gets weirder and weirder until... Well, I won't spoil it. What's your favorite book?" 

As Jackie examined the authors signature she replied. 

"Catcher in the Rye." 

"Ah, never read it." 

"Oh? Why not?" 

Pauline thought for a moment and said, "this is going to sound really stupid but... I'm kinda afraid of it." 

"You're afraid of it? Why?" 

Pauline replied, "there's all kinds of weirdness associated with it. I... I suppose I was afraid that if I read it that I might turn into an MK-ULTRA assassin." 

"Are you still afraid of it? After all we've been through together? Do you still think that there's some dormant CIA programming hiding out in your mind?" 

"No... I don't think so." 

"Ah, then I'll loan you my copy. You'll see. It's a good book. Let me quote you something from it, ahem. 'The mark of an immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause. The mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.' That's on page 244, I think..." 

Jackie closed the book and set it aside.

Once they were dressed they went downstairs, had breakfast and went outside where a van was waiting for them. 

Britney, Emily and Eclipsa were inside. Along with an older blonde woman they didn't recognize. 

Jackie and Pauline walked up and the older woman introduced herself. "Gertrude Koss, I'm an old friend of Britney's mother." 

"This is that lawyer that Britney was talking about. She's absolutely charming!" Said Eclipsa. 

"Oh, okay... Good to know that's worked out... But... What's all this?" Asked Pauline. 

"We're going to a music festival." Said Britney. 

"Really?" Asked Jackie. 

"Yes really." Replied Britney with a big smile on her face. 

The drive out took an hour. During which time the girls put quite a bit of effort into not talking about anything illegal, immoral or fattening. But there was still much to talk about. 

Britney showed off various accessories and clothes that she had brought for everyone. 

Jackie loosened up, she was looking forward to doing some dancing. 

Emily was positively glowing. She had never had anything like this for a birthday celebration. 

Pauline and Eclipsa just sat in the back and listened. 

Gertrude dropped them off at the front gate and went to go park the van. 

"Let's go!" Announced Britney. 

The girls rushed in. But once they got past security Britney led them to a somewhat quiet spot and took a small plastic bag out of her shoe. 

"Uh, what the heck are those?" Asked Pauline. 

"Ecstasy, and a couple other things." 

Britney took one of the pills. 

"Whoa, are you nuts? Have you ever taken that before?" Asked Pauline. 

"Never, but this seemed like a good place to start." Replied Britney as she took a swig of water. 

Jackie took one of the pills. 

"And now you're taking this stuff?" Asked Pauline. 

As Jackie swallowed the pill she asked. "Isn't older you some kind of drug and gun nut?" 

"Gun nut... Yeesh! No not really. Older me treats drugs with tremendous respect. She only uses them for therapeutic purposes. Ecstasy increases body temperature and we're already in a desert. How do you know that you two won't cook from the inside out?" 

Eclipsa took a pill and so did Emily. Emily smiled at Pauline and said, "oh come on, live a little. You're only young once." 

Britney replied, "ah let her go. She can be our designated paramedic. Come on, I want to be someplace fun when this kicks in." 

As Britney walked off they noticed that Pauline was hammering away on her phone. 

"Please don't tell us you're narcing us out!?" Asked Britney. 

"Narc? No, I'm just looking up MDMA on Erowid. It looks like you two have a wait of between thirty minutes to two hours before that stuff kicks in. It also says to drink plenty of water... geezum crow! I really am going to be your paramedic for the rest of the day, aren't I?" 

Pauline tried to join in on the dancing. But she just couldn't quite get the hang of it. The music was unfamiliar, the beats and rhythms, surprisingly hard for her to tune into. She couldn't help but be anxious about the fact that all of her friends were about to shift into an altered state of consciousnesses and the risk of any one of them might have unexpected magical side effects. 

And then the MDMA kicked in. 

Jackie's eyes opened fully. 

She could see everything around her. Yet what grabbed her attention was that while everyone else was swaying in time with the music, Pauline was just kinda shuffling around. 

Jackie danced over to her. 

"Do you trust me?" Asked Jackie. 

"Yeah." Replied Pauline. 

Jackie applied acupressure to a bunch of places on Pauline's body. She collapsed to the ground in a heap. 

"What did you do!?" Asked Britney. 

Jackie began swirling her right index finger just above Britneys forehead. Her third eye opened with the shock of MDMA taking effect. 

One song stopped. 

Another began. 

Pauline staggered to her feet as she came into resonance with her environment. Yet still she couldn't help but think that this was a bad place to do drugs. Not because it was dangerous, but because they were unnecessary. 

Emily exhaled and came into resonance. 

Britney saw what was holding her back, and let go of it all. 

Eclipsa eased into a state of relaxation such as she had never experienced in her life. 

Jackie was in her element. She took the lead and brought the girls right into the middle of the concert. They could see every vibration, every variation, every subtle nuance of the festival. The awkwardness melted as they experienced what it was like to become part of something bigger than themselves. 

After six hours of partying the girls were returned to the Wong family home. Took off some of their clothes and leapt into the pool. 

"That was..." Jackie said. 

"Energetic." Replied Eclipsa. 

"I'm kinda surprised we lived through that." Said Pauline. 

"Yeah, I wouldn't be too surprised if the water started boiling off of us." Said Britney. 

"Best... Birthday... Ever!" Said Emily.


	16. Brita's Tacos.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eclipsa and Britney demonstrate some newly acquired skills. 
> 
> Another trip to the Carousel on the Rock. 
> 
> And the eye... Opens.

Eclipsa stood in the arcade in full battle rattle. 

Jackie still couldn't get over how natural Eclipsa looked dressed as a commando. After seeing so many variations of Eclipsa across space and time, this... Was something different. 

Emily was getting something to eat. 

Britney felt that she was watching something nearly inexplicable. 

Pauline started the timer and announced, "begin!" 

Eclipsa ran through the course of fire with her airsoft gun. Smoothly moving from stage to stage, firing controlled pairs at every target. 

Eclipsa hit the final target, engaged the safety and dropped the gun, letting it catch on the sling. 

"One minute, thirty seven seconds. Not bad, not bad at all." Said Pauline. 

"It's a simple enough. Just aim and fire." Said Eclipsa. 

"I still don't understand why you didn't just have us magically recharge you." Said Britney. 

Eclipsa took off a glove and said. "When you drained the magic out of me I felt like I was whole. I may have been good at magic but it wasn't good for me."

Emily walked up with a plate of nachos and observed, "well since we're a team of magical girls and we have one non magical team member are we still just a bunch of magical girls? Or are we a cadre of superheroes?"

"Don't know. But I would feel a bit more comfortable if we could have found a boy to join up with us. It's too bad we never found a good candidate." Said Pauline. 

"Yeah, the closest we got was Marco and despite his constant insistence that he is. He is not that bad a boy." Observed Jackie. 

"What about Oskar Greason? Didn't you energetically rearrange him like you did to me?" Asked Britney. 

"Yeah, about that he... Vanished. Fixed up his car and left town a couple of weeks after I rearranged him."

"Ever think of rearranging any of the other boys in school?"

"I think I'd rather not and I think they would rather not too."

"Ah well... In that case..."

As everyone eating a young man who was familiar to most of the girls came walking by, Rex. Britney leapt into his arms and kissed him on the cheek a couple of times. 

Emily walked up and held hands with him. All three of them walked off together. 

"What do you want to bet they are rearranging him?" Asked Jackie. 

"Suckers bet, it's pretty obvious. I mean, that guy was glowing." Replied Pauline as she picked up the plate of abandoned nachos. 

"Do you think Globgor would have fit in with this team?" Asked Eclipsa. 

"Maybe, don't know. But if he was here then you wouldn't be part of this team. You and him would be off having your own fun somewhere." Replied Pauline. 

"Yeah..." Replied Eclipsa in a sad tone. 

"Once again, I really am sorry about...." 

"Yes, I know, Pauline. It's just... What are we going to do after this little project is over?" 

"You sign some papers, meet with some immigration officials and you live the rest of your life here, on Earth, in peace." Said Jackie. 

As they packed up their things Eclipsa couldn't help but look at her hands again. 

It felt so weird to have healthy hands. 

Later that night, around eleven o'clock...

Jackie, Pauline, Emily, Eclipsa and Britney snuck towards their target. 

They had decided that it was time for them to investigate the magical well. 

They hid in various lookout positions and urged Britney to get the back door to Brita's Tacos. Britney had expressed an interest in becoming the teams designated lock picker. She had picked up the basics fairly quickly. It amused her. She had never been able to understand Janna's obsession with barging into secure places. But after having popped open a few locks, Britney was beginning to understand Janna a little better. 

The lock was very easy to pick. Once it clicked open the other girls moved in and locked the door behind them. 

With military precision and fluidity they made their way into the basement and found that the well was not there. Just a solid stone floor. 

Pauline took out a rock hammer and tapped on the floor, concluding. 

"Solid... completely solid. We aren't getting through this without specialized equipment." 

"Well what about this?" Asked Eclipsa. 

There was something under a crudely applied plaster on the walls. Pauline tapped it gently with the hammer and revealed stone works with a variety of carvings on it. Segments of plaster were ripped off. Revealing carvings of boats, rivers, writings and Glossarick. 

"Do you recognize any of these writings?" Jackie asked Eclipsa. 

"No, it's not any language I've ever seen. It's not Low Mewman." 

"I've never seen anything like it either." Said Britney. 

"It's certainly not French." Said Emily. 

Pauline took some pictures and observed. "The pictograms tell the story fairly clearly. These writings though... Perhaps there's a quick and easy translation, but I doubt it. Either way, this... Is not something we need to focus on at the moment." 

Pauline took out her dimensional scissors and made a portal to Quest Buy. As they walked through she announced. 

"Okay, we get more scissors, perhaps some other toys and then we get..." 

Quest Buy was empty. There were no employees, no products, not even empty shelves. 

"Sure you got the right place?" Asked Emily. 

"Yeah this is it. Quest Buy has been around since my time. Everything's just... Gone." Said Eclipsa. 

"Why did they close?" Asked Britney. 

"Don't know, the Bounce Lounge shut down because the owner wanted to retire. I saw Quest Buy get shut down in a couple of alternate timelines. Whatever happened here was probably the same thing that happened there." Said jackie. 

"So... No more dimensional scissors?" Emily asked. 

"Not unless we steal them from someone else." Said Eclipsa. 

"This... is going to put a crimp in our plan." Said Jackie. 

"Yeah... Well, you know what they say. A plan is just a list of things that ain't gonna happen." Said Pauline as she made a portal back to the house on the rock. 

The girls walked towards the carousel. 

Eclipsa stopped. She didn't want to go any further. 

The girls left her standing by the portal as they drew closer. 

Pauline could see the energy radiating out of the carousel. As expected it looked different than it had before. Calmer, more organized. 

She closed her eyes and began casting the spell. 

"I summon the all seeing eye." 

"To tear a hole into the sky." Said Jackie. 

"Reveal that which is hidden." Said Britney. 

"Unveil to me what is forbidden!" Said Emily. 

The eye opened. 

All four girls could see the premier of China. 

They watched and waited as he went about his daily business. 

And after about twenty minutes Britney realized that they weren't going to find anything of use here. So she shifted the perspective. To a secure bunker complex. China's equivalent to the Cheyenne Mountain complex. 

Britney closed her eyes and walked out of the formation. She got her notebook and started taking copious notes of what she was seeing. 

Emily, Pauline and Jackie shuffled around until they were facing each other as points of an imaginary triangle with the viewing portal in the center. 

Britney could just see them and the bunker. 

But the more time went by as they remained one with the spell the more that Jackie, Pauline and Emily could see. 

Eclipsa put her hand on Britney's left shoulder and said. "I think we should knock this off. I think our friends are getting a little too into it."

Eclipsa had already made a portal back to Britney's backyard. Britney and Eclipsa approached the girls carefully. 

Britney touched Emily's shoulder and told her to take a break. 

Emily crumpled to the ground. She was smoldering somewhat. Her eyes were painfully stuck in an ommatidia state. Britney carefully drained the excess magical energy out of them. 

When Emily dropped out the eye dissolved leaving Pauline and Jackie facing each other in a state of full non dual consciousness. 

Both their wings came out, and caught fire. 

They stood there. Unable to move, frozen in place by raw power. Eclipsa very carefully grabbed Jackie by the shoulders and walked her towards the portal. Jackie had to walk on tip toes. 

Emily and Britney just grabbed Pauline and hoisted her through the portal. Once on the other side Jackie and Pauline appeared to be in some kind of catatonic state. Britney got a glass of water from her kitchen and tipped it on Pauline. 

She waved her hand in front of Jackie's face. 

"Lights are on, but nobody's home." Said Emily. 

"Have you ever seen anything like this?" Asked Britney. 

"Nope, but every time I cast that spell it was with the wand. I've never seen it have this effect on anyone before."

"You don't suppose they are stuck viewing other timelines?" Asked Britney. 

"No, they are viewing other dimensions." Said Emily. 

Jackie and Pauline grunted as their eyes phased into ommatidia patterns. Britney walked around them and said, "okay, I'm going to try something. This is probably going to suck." 

Britney grabbed Pauline's wings and attempted to drain the excess magic out of her system. 

It was only just now Britney realized the incredible potential of her magical abilities. 

Mirrors. 

Endless mirrors. 

As Britney let go she collapsed to the ground. 

Pauline's and Jackie's wings dissolved. But as they dissolved Kolibri formed. 

Kolibri leaned down and picked up Britney. 

Britney was speaking some kind of gibberish softly. Everyone looked at his curious image of two girls with the same face looking at each other. 

"Yo! Britney! You okay?" Asked Kolibri. 

Britney shook her head and said, "yeah, I'm just a little... Hey... It's you! Are we... Are we cool? I'm sorry about almost eating you." 

"Yeah, we're cool." Kolibri replied as she dissolved, Britney pulled herself back together and said. "Okay, um... It's going to take me awhile to work out a translation for what we saw in that bunker. It's late... how about we all just go home and get some rest?"


	17. Golden Wrath.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having learned what they need to know the girls discuss their plan of attack.

After the second charging at the carousel the girls had enough stored power to use the All Seeing Eye at will. 

Britney and Emily worked on translating what they were seeing, while Jackie and Pauline focused on getting Eclipsa's skills to where they needed to be for this mission. 

After a week of careful observation, Britney summed up what she had learned. 

"The Chinese governments orbital kinetic bombardment system is codenamed Golden Wrath. As we suspected, the launch protocol is identical to that of a nuclear launch. Even though we have their launch codes we are going to need to steal a Chinese government nuclear football and kidnap at least two people on their approved list to defeat it's biometrics. And yes, we're going to have to kidnap them. This isn't like the movies where you can just chop a guys hand off or suck out his eye and use those to defeat a scanner. The scanners in question are designed to pick up a heartbeat. But once we have unlocked their system we have those we will also have control of... Most of their nuclear arsenal." 

Eclipsa asked, "most?" 

"We should have complete control of their ground based ICBM's. Their bombers will take too long to scramble and get to a target. By the time they get to anywhere they can do damage they will be shot down. The Chinese military does not have stealth aircraft. Their government might be able to use secondary communications channels to notify their ballistic missile submarines that they are under attack. If they do then they will be able to launch a nuclear strike. Their subs are crap compared to American or even Russian subs and they don't have many of them, but one is always on patrol. So we are going to have to find their missile sub and seize control of it before we launch the darts."

"Even with magic and the dimensional scissors, this is going to be a challenge." Replied Pauline. 

"I think we can pull it off. The eye has given us everything we need to know." Said Emily. "We can see the inside of their submarines, bunkers and bases at will." 

Pauline looked around and saw the expressions of grim determinations on the faces of everyone in Britney's home theater and asked in a tone of utter disbelief. "We're... Really doing this? I mean, we're really going to break into the highest levels of the Chinese government. Kidnap two men and launch an secret satellite weapons system against hundreds of government officials!?"

"I believe that it would also be in our best interest to sabotage their nuclear capability as well, and launch a nuclear strike against these four military bases. Once those are gone it will be fairly easy for the Taiwanese government to sweep in and take control." Said Emily. 

Jackie said in a distant tone. "That's going to mean a lot of dead soldiers." 

Pauline took her hand and said, "if you don't want any part of this then we can..." 

"No, no... No. Just following orders. I've read about what the Chinese army is involved in these days. The crimes of the past were bad enough. Those guys... One of my first memories is seeing a documentary about Tiananmen Square. They... They slaughtered people there. But you know what everyone outside of China remembers about that? The Tank Man. The guy who stood in the way of a column of tanks and said, 'enough.' I'm saying enough, I'm all in, all the way to the end, Eclipsa?" 

"This is a bold action and if we do it properly no one but us will ever know we did it. But it will be something that will matter. I'm tired of not mattering." Eclipsa replied. 

Britney asked, "Pauline... Do you want to do this? I mean really. You're not just doing this to reinforce the image of who you are in the other timeline?" 

"Aha... No, no older other me is a gun nut and a libertarian wacko. She fought against the UN once, by accident. She was never crazy enough to try to overthrow a government. Much less one of the biggest governments in the world. You know what I've been wondering... Why do you have such a hard on for knocking out the Chinese communist government? Emily." 

"I've established that I have a complex relationship with the idea of colonialism... Right?" 

"Yeah." Replied Pauline. "Your uncle Gras was an interesting guy to put it lightly." 

"Karl Marx was an awful man, his ideas are responsible for unbelievable suffering. Those ideas live on in the government's of five nations. Cuba, China, Laos, North Korea and Vietnam. Vietnam is making major diplomatic overtures to the west. We knock out China... North Korea will almost certainly join them in the dust bin of history. Laos and Cuba... There will be no way they can keep those governments up much longer. Their economies are too subsidized. All of these governments should have fallen in the early 90s. It's time to finish what Solidarity in Poland started." 

"What about the idea that the Chinese government has largely abandoned communist ideas? That their government is more of a fascistic one? Or if we are going into the anti colonialist argument... I mean... we're not native Chinese." Asked Jackie. 

"Communists, fascists, they both suck. Can we agree on that? As for the anti colonial thing..." 

"Are we trying to talk ourselves out of something? or into something?" Asked Britney. 

Pauline walked around a little bit and asked, "I don't know. Maybe I'm just trying to get a handle on what we're doing. Maybe I'm asking if we're doing the wrong thing for the right reasons or the right thing for the wrong reasons?" 

"Well... What is right?" Asked Emily. 

"Don't know, ask her that. Jackie has always had the best moral compass of anyone I know." Pauline stated firmly.

"Really? More than your father?" Asked Jackie. 

"Oh yeah." 

"More than Alex Davis?" Asked Jackie. 

"That evangelical prick we go to school with? Yeah, you don't try to clutter your moral decisions with centuries of dogma." Replied Pauline. 

"So... In the context of what we are doing here... What is right?" Asked Eclipsa, crawling up behind Jackie in a mildly creepy manner. 

"Okay... Is this the right decision? I think so. For the wrong reasons? Well, what would be the right reasons? We're not going to personally profit from this. There's not going to be a financial reward or cheering crowds waiting for us at the end. This government hasn't slighted any of us personally so we're not doing this out of anger. Obviously we're running the risk of starting a war. But even if everything goes off perfectly... I don't know... Do we have to overthrow a foreign government?" 

"I don't know. What right did the communists have to throw my family out of their continent and kill millions of people?!" Shouted Britney. "Look, we're not perfect, we're not saintly. We're not even nice, we're not supposed to be. Say this is the right thing for the wrong reason or just the wrong thing for the wrong reasons, I don't care. If we leave the communists in charge of China then more people are going to die needlessly. That's just what we are all looking at right now. So, are we going to do this or not?" 

"I think I'm having second thoughts about this." Said Pauline. 

"Aw geez... You can't." Said Britney. 

"I... Can't? Why not?" 

"Because you're our leader." 

Pauline froze. 

She didn't know wether to laugh, cry or run out of the room. As she stammered out. "I'm... No, no I'm just... No, no that's not fair, I'm not... No!" 

"Uh... You are dude." Said Jackie. 

"Seems like you are." Said Eclipsa. 

"I mean, if you aren't the leader of our group then who is?" Asked Emily. 

"No... I'm... I'm willing to train you. I'm willing to fight along side you but I'm not... Wow, I mean... How did we get here? Goodbye!" 

Pauline walked out of the building. 

Jackie ran after her. She walked alongside Pauline for a moment until Pauline burst out. 

"Orbital weapons! Nuclear strikes! Vaporizing military bases! Jackie, when did you turn into Dr Strangelove?" 

"Nah." 

"Nah?"

"Nah... If I were a character from that movie I'd probably be General Ripper. 'We can no longer allow communist indoctrination, communist subversion and corruption of our precious... Minds.' But if you want to take the 'bodily fluids' approach. China does pump an awful lot of pollutants into the air." 

"What's the real reason you want to do this?" Pauline asked. 

"Because I don't want to live in a dystopia! Our whole civilization is barreling headlong towards one and no one is doing anything about it! The center cannot hold, things fall apart. The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity. This... This is conviction! If that government remains then trust me, awful things will happen!" 

Pauline stopped walking and said. "You saw a lot of different timelines. You see the future over the long term, I see it in the short term. Right now all I see is piles of dead bodies." 

"Pauline..." Jackie looked around. 

"Look, you know as well as I do that this whole... Seeing the future thing is difficult. You let slip one teensy little bit of information and things start to change. The butterfly effect just keeps flapping its wings until the information becomes irrelevant. So I'm just going to tell you this, no one else. You probably won't even believe me, but... The Chinese are planning something big. Something profoundly evil. They are going to release a virus that will kill millions of people." 

"A virus? You're kidding!" 

Pauline looked into Jackie's eyes and whispered. "You're not kidding... Why?" 

Jackie looked around, put her hands on Pauline's shoulders and explained. "You know how people say, 'life is a game.' Well, it is, that statement is truer than you can imagine. But what people don't realize is the nature of the game. In the 1800s people referred to the struggle of empires to control Afghanistan as The Great Game. It's a game with winners and losers and bloodshed and all sorts of horrors. At some point, a few years from now the Chinese government comes to the conclusion that they are losing the game to dominate the world. Governments will be elected all over the world that will say clearly, in one voice. That they are tired of the communists corruption. A virus will emerge and the Chinese government will clamp down on the source, controlling it in their own country while allowing it to spread all around the world. The consequences will be catastrophic. And ultimately the communists will be the big winners of that game because most people will conclude that the only way to deal with the virus is with total, top down control. That's the way the communists do things." 

"Okay, I can understand that. That's why you want to take this government down?" 

"I can't say it's the only reason. But yeah. Look, the rest of the world has been sitting back and letting the government commit atrocities for years. As far as I'm concerned this is definitely in the, 'would you kill Hitler if you had the chance.' Time travel file. This is the best shot that we're going to have. It's only going to be a matter of time until their government learns about magic and develops countermeasures. We will have missed our shot and it will probably lead to war upon the wider multiverse." 

Pauline noticed Marco walking the laser puppies and said. "Hold on one moment. Hey! Marco!" 

"Um... Hey." 

Pauline walked over and said. "I'm sorry, before I do anything else there's one last thing I need to take care of." 

Pauline let her wings unfold. 

She understood how the puppies eye lasers worked now. 

One by one she gently patted the puppies on the head and turned the laser puppies... Into normal puppies, explaining. "Sorry, I just couldn't bear the thought of anyone else suffering blindness because of those dogs." 

"Eventual blindness? Who went blind?" Asked Marco. 

"Your father. You know how he loves to play with them. In about six years... His eyes were completely destroyed." Explained Pauline. 

"Wow... Um... Thank you... Pauline. It still feels a bit weird to call you that." 

"Yeah well... That's who I am... no. That's who I always was. Have a nice night... Mr Diaz."

As Marco walked away the image of Rafael Diaz wearing thick sunglasses, holding a cane began to fade from Pauline's minds eye. 

"You did the right thing." Said Jackie. 

"What? I prevented a man from going blind with minimal effort? Is that enough?" 

"It's enough for now." 

The rest of the girls walked up. 

"You know what? I've changed my mind. Let's do this." Said Pauline. 

Britney put her hand in. 

As did Emily. 

As did Eclipsa and Jackie. 

Pauline sighed and said. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained."


	18. Launch.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With speed and fury the girls conduct their operation to overthrow the Chinese Communist government.

Emily, Britney and Eclipsa knocked on Pauline's front door.

She welcomed them in and led them to the backyard shed where she and Jackie had been working on their equipment.

After they got dressed they looked over what Pauline had provided.

Emily whistled, "wow, this is some serious shit."

"Yep, Mark Eighteen short barreled rifles. Reassembled on 80 percent lowers. The parts shouldn't be able to be traced to the military or us." Explained Pauline. "Bulletproof vests, medical gear, C4 explosives, grenades."

"Where did you get these?" Asked Britney.

"Well, where do you think I got them?" Pauline asked back.

"You stole it, didn't you?" Said Emily.

"Yeah... Maybe. Definitely, I mean, a lot of this stuff is super illegal federally. Never mind illegal in the state of California. But not the medical gear. That's still legal to purchase... For now."

It took awhile for them to get dressed and equipped. They stepped out into the yard and Pauline asked one last question.

"Good to go?"

Everyone nodded.

Pauline looked at Eclipsa. Eclipsa took out her dimensional scissors and made a portal to the bedroom of the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

They walked though, found him sleeping, quietly tied him up and went to the door.

Britney and Pauline opened the door. As the Secretaries's guards walked in they were taken down by a pair of silenced gun shots to the head.

Britney hesitated, this was the first time she had ever killed someone. It was much messier than writing names in a book. She grit her teeth and walked into the hallway. The man with the nuclear football wasn't far away. Just down the hallway in a kitchen area.

That man and three guards came running up. Before they could draw their sidearms Pauline and Britney put down the three guards and walked up to the man with the football.

Emily walked up with a pair of bolt cutters and cut the case from the guards wrist.

Pauline cast hypnoslumber on him and he went wandering off.

"Okay, let's get the hell out of here!" Said Pauline as they went back to the bedroom.

They cut a portal to a shack in a very quiet area of Beijing not too far from the Secretaries's residence that had been prepared by the girls beforehand. Eclipsa cut another portal to the home of a very high ranking People's Liberation Army general. Eclipsa, Emily and Britney went through the portal while Pauline and Jackie went to work on the Football. Using the Secretaries biometrics they were able to unlock the device.

As Britney walked through the portal she found something that she wasn't expecting.

She had expected to see a General Wing sleeping alone in his bed. The general had been carefully selected by the girls partly because he had recently gone through an ugly divorce. Instead what Britney found was that he was wide awake, holding a pistol. Along with two comely young female PLA soldiers. One with a rather large knife and the other with a cricket bat who had been trying to 'cheer him up.'

Britney pushed the selector switch for her carbine to full auto and swept the room.

The general fired his pistol.

Everyone got shot.

Britney got shot in the neck. The soldier with the bat got shot in the chest. The general got shot a bunch of times in the leg and the soldier with the knife was grazed through her left arm. She rolled off the bed, ducking behind it as Eclipsa and Emily stepped through the portal.

Emily looked down and saw Britney. She screamed, "you sons of!"

She turned her carbine to full auto. But before she could get her finger on the trigger the second soldier grabbed the generals gun and fired at Emily.

Emily's middle finger was blown off. The rest of the bullets either went into her carbine or the vest. As the pistol's slide locked back. The soldier erupted off the bed and stuck the knife into Eclipsa's right side.

Which was stopped by Eclipsa's vest. She grunted and fired a burst from her carbine into the soldier.

The sounds of a great many pissed off People's Liberation Army soldiers began to thunder through the generals house.

"Come on, we have to get out of here!" Eclipsa shouted.

Emily grabbed the generals left arm, Eclipsa his right and threw him through the portal. Then Eclipsa and Emily grabbed what was left of Britney and jumped back through. Just as the door to the bedroom was kicked open by a legion of pissed off men.

Pauline had just accessed the auto destruct feature of the Chinese ICBM fleet as a mortally wounded General Wing was thrown through the portal.

Eclipsa staggered through and closed the portal, Jackie asked. "What happened?"

"Wing woke up... And he had a couple girls with him who really knew how to fight." Replied Eclipsa.

Emily groaned as she held up her left hand. Now missing a middle finger. "They shot me!"

Pauline said, "now that we have General Wing we won't need you for what comes next. Get back to Echo Creek, we will take it from here."

Eclipsa nodded and made another portal. Emily grabbed the drag handle on Britney's vest with her one good hand and pulled her through the portal.

General Wing didn't have much life left in him. But there was just enough for his biometrics and launch codes to be entered into the football.

The Golden Wrath system was accessed. Target coordinates were carefully fed in and a timer was started.

Pauline looked at Jackie and smiled. "The satellites are getting into position. Launch in fifteen minutes... Now for the hard part."

Pauline drew her pistol and fired one bullet each into the heads of the Secretary and General Wing, then made a portal to what she hoped was the command center of a ballistic missile submarine.

As soon as Pauline stepped through she smashed the captain of the submarine in the face with the football and cast hypnoslumber on everyone on the bridge. Pauline and Jackie secured the sleeping crew with zip ties and went rearward, to maneuvering, casting hypnoslumber the whole way.

The crew was secured and hatches were locked shut.

Emily and Eclipsa had returned to Pauline's backyard.

Emily held what remained of Britney, she heard a heartbeat. While Eclipsa slowly and deliberately removed the knife sticking out her vest. 

Emily put Britney down and focused. She let her wings come out fully and saw what was wrong with Britney.

A bullet had grazed some critical nerves in her spine.

Emily focused on the damaged area and invoked.

"Quantum healing."

Eclipsa looked on silently. Quantum healing was a very risky spell that none of the girls wanted to use because it was the mixing of quantum physics and magic. Which when you consider that a major part of the science of quantum physics was improbability, risk, luck and the randomness of fate...

Emily focused on the spot and began gesturing. Emily knew what Britney's spine was supposed to look like. Cell by cell she wove the damaged areas back together with sheer willpower, memory and magic.

Britney gasped in air. Her fingers and toes stretched and spasmed wildly. She pulled herself back together and said... "Where's..! Where's?"

Eclipsa gave them both a thumbs up while she applied a bandage to the paper cut sized incision in the side of her body.

"Jackie and Pauline?" Asked Britney. 

"They are on the sub." Said Emily.

"Well we got to help them, we got to..."

In the sky, Britney saw the traceries of the falling darts.

Britney grabbed Eclipsa's scissors and made a portal to the submarine.

She stuck her head in to see a sunken submarine.

Britney pulled her soaking wet head out of the portal and said. "Okay, they launched the darts and sank the sub. So either they are dead... Or perhaps they got off the sub in a..."

Britney collapsed to the ground.

"I'm sorry... I just need a minute."

* * *

The missile control console was found. As soon as Pauline plugged in the authorization codes and loaded the target package the ship began to take itself to launch depth. Pauline and Jackie found the launch keys around the necks of the ships captain and executive officer.

As the ship began to change course Pauline sat next to the helm and said. "I think things are going..."

Boom!

An explosion blew open a hatch. Four crew men came pouring through the hatch with various blunt instruments.

Jackie and Pauline held their ground and fired at them.

But while the girls were focused on the enlisted men they didn't notice an officer with a handgun who had snuck through a different passage.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Pauline went down.

Jackie screamed and fired her rifle at the officer. Killing him instantly.

Pauline groaned and said, "I'm okay! I think? yeah... The vest caught it. Damn this hurts though."

Pauline took her vest off. The flesh underneath was livid, but she was okay.

"And he would happen to aim for the shiny thing on my vest." Pauline held up her now broken pair of dimensional scissors. "I suppose we're going to have to find another way off of this tub."

"We will find one, can you walk?" Asked Jackie.

"I think so. Ugh, are the other compartments locked?"

"Yeah, locked and secured."

Pauline staggered to her feet, Jackie helped Pauline stagger to her console. They inserted their keys and checked the target coordinates one last time as Pauline read out.

"Three, two, one, key turn."

The countdown began. In three minutes, four missiles would launch from this sub towards four different major Chinese military bases. Five minutes after that the darts would fire.

"Solution ready." Shouted Jackie.

"Weapon ready." Replied Pauline in a quiet tone. She pulled the trigger on the system and meekly said, "fire four."

The submarine was shaken by the thunderous launch of four ICBM's.

Pauline groaned and held the area where she had been shot. "Alright, since the scissors are broken we're going to have to get off this thing in a life raft."

Kolibri materialized and took C4 charges from Pauline and Jackie and went around the ship placing them with the timers set for ten minutes. Once they were on the surface Jackie and Pauline climbed onto the top of the sub and prepared a life raft. Pauline looked around and said. "There's... Hopefully an American submarine that was tailing this tub and hopefully they..."

She was cut off by the sound of a torpedo detonating in the submarines torpedo compartment. The crew had concluded that their boat had been hijacked and that the submarine needed to be destroyed before it could fire any more of its missiles. The humongous explosion blew Jackie, Pauline and the raft off the submarine.

Jackie desperately removed her bulletproof vest as the boat went down and swam towards the raft. The raft had been only partly inflated when the explosion happened and had inflated perfectly. Jackie got in and was pleased to find no leaks.

Under the light of an almost full moon, somewhere near the equator in the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, Jackie searched for Pauline.

"I've got her!" Announced Kolibri as she swam towards the raft.

"I can't get her vest off!" Kolibri shouted as she and Jackie dragged Pauline into the raft.

Pauline was bleeding profusely. The vest had caught most of the shrapnel but there were several holes in Pauline's left arm. Pauline looked at her wounds and said, "hey Jackie... I'm bleeding."

Jackie and Kolibri were already tearing up.

Pauline looked up at Jackie and said, "stupid, stupid. I'm sorry I ever put you at risk."

Kolibri materialized in her most physical incarnation yet. But she still looked exactly how she had looked, almost from the beginning. Like Britney Wong. Albeit in a copy of the black uniform that they had all dressed in before this mission began.

Kolibri stood up and took one last look as the mortally wounded submarine sank.

A brilliant light flashed in the sky as the darts fell on their targets. Pauline looked up at this, smiled and passed out.

Out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean everything went silent. The sky was crystal clear. Jackie couldn't help but cry over Pauline. Kolibri just sat there with an expression of disbelief on her face.

She was a person now. A complete human being. Bones, muscles, organs... Everything.

Kolibri looked at Pauline, caressed her face and whispered.

"I'm so sorry."

"Damn it! You aren't dying on me that easily!" Growled Jackie. She grabbed the tourniquet off of the front of Pauline's vest and cinched it around her arm.

Pauline breathed raggedly.

Jackie exhaled in relief. A conning tower broached the water. In the moonlight, Kolibri could make out the silhouette of a Virginia class attack submarine.

"Hey... We're saved!" Kolibri said in a tone of disbelief.

The sub pulled alongside the raft. The crew shone powerful lights at Jackie, Pauline and Kolibri. But before the stunned crew could ask any questions of the three girls. Eclipsa portaled in.

"Well, come on!" Eclipsa urged.

As Eclipsa pulled herself back through the portal. Jackie and Kolibri carried a seriously wounded Pauline home.


	19. What my wings would look like.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily goes back to France, Eclipsa gets ready for her new life on Earth. Kolibri, Britney and Pauline go see a movie and Jackie and Star discuss the circumstances that set this entire story in motion.

Following the rain of darts upon the highest ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party. And the detonation of four ICBM's over the four largest PLA bases a general state of chaos spread across mainland China. Taking advantage of this, the Taiwanese government invaded the mainland and seized control. Following a series of brief but bloody battles the bulk of the Chinese population deferred to the transition of power. 

Pauline, Emily and Britney were rushed to a hospital. Jackie made up a story about playing with fireworks. Chunks of metal the doctors pulled out of Pauline's arm could have defeated the lie. Had they been subjected to forensic analysis they could have been traced to the submarine. 

However... Before the samples could be entered into evidence, Eclipsa snuck into where they were being kept and replaced them with similar chunks of jagged steel from a wrecked car. 

Pauline's and Britney's blood pressure was below what the doctors thought possible to survive. But after a blood transfusion or two Britney was brought back to some semblance of health. Pauline suffered some muscle and nerve damage in her left arm. Emily lost her left middle finger. 

After the hospital they went back to Britney's house to see the news. 

The Republic of China's reconquest of the mainland played out over the course of less than a week. In the chambers of power a story emerged. Evidence was found that a small group of People's Liberation Army officers had become concerned about the increasing centralization of power around the office of the General Secretary and orchestrated a coup against him. They were able to kidnap the Secretary and one of his compatriots, murder them and seize control of a top secret satellite weapons system. Their dastardly plan might have ended with the compete destruction of China had not the crew of a People's Liberation Army-Navy ballistic missile submarine detonated one of their own torpedoes to sabotage the launch of the rest of the submarines missiles. 

A few other coup plotters were found and executed by the new government. There were calls for investigations of illegal space based weapons. Generally though, people stopped asking those questions and started asking other questions. International stresses were soothed. Threats of further war evaporated and Emily's parents sent her a message demanding that she return home immediately. 

The girls saw Emily off at the airport. They had decided that it would probably be best to use conventional transport for awhile. Emily kissed them all goodbye and said. "I'll see you again, as soon as I can." 

She waved goodbye with her unbandaged hand. 

Eclipsa looked at them and said. "Well, I've got an apartment to finish furnishing... and the day after tomorrow I have a warehouse job to report to. Thanks... I'll... I'll see you around." 

As Eclipsa walked away Britney looked at Kolibri with what used to be her trademark sneer and asked in a snooty tone. "So... There's two of us now?" 

"Yeah this won't get confusing at all, will it?" Said Kolibri. "I mean... I don't have a birth certificate, perhaps I should talk to Eclipsa's lawyer?" 

"Let's just wait and see if you dissolve back into the ether first." Said Jackie. 

"It's been a week. I don't think I'm dissolving anywhere." 

"No we're going somewhere. We're going to Britney's house where we can all watch a corny movie in her home theater and try not to think about what we all just did." Pauline said in a tone of forced cheerfulness. Her arm was still in a sling. 

Britney was still on crutches. It would be a while until both girls were back to being 'combat effective.' They got on a city bus and rode back to Britney's place. 

Britney, Kolibri and Pauline got off at the house. Jackie said. "I'll be with you in a little while. There's something I have to clean up." As the bus drove away. Jackie walked over to someone in the back reading a newspaper. As she pressed down on the paper she asked. 

"So... What have you been up to, Star?" 

"What? I can't just go on a bus ride?" 

Jackie stared at her silently for a few moments. 

Star sighed and said. "Okay, let's get off at the next stop." 

Once they were off the bus Star admitted as they walked back to Britney's house. "I've been following you guys around. I know a bunch of crazy stuff happened a week ago. Some big evil government got taken out and I saw you guys portal out of StarFan's backyard with a bunch of guns right before it happened." 

"Okay, are you going to turn us over to the police?" Asked Jackie. 

"What? No! No I just... No! No, I... I just don't understand! If you guys were going to do something big and crazy and dangerous... Why didn't you come to me for help?" 

"Well, Star... Thanks, but... No offense, we didn't need you. And if you were watching us then you must have seen that everyone but me got shot, blown up or stabbed." 

"I can handle that." Star snapped. 

"Okay. Then why didn't you come to us earlier? You could see that we were training for something serious. If you had come to us then we could have brought you in like we brought in Eclipsa." 

"I... Okay. You have me there. I should have said something. But there's more to this... I don't know why but it feels like there's something you've been keeping from me." 

Jackie stopped walking and said. "Okay, there is something. I've seen dozens of different timelines and now I know why all this happened. Some other Pauline off in the future had some kind of an accident with magical energy." 

"Yeah, you told me about that at the beach." 

"Yes, but there's two unresolved aspects. Our Pauline told us that she had a dream where she was holding hands with Britney. I was able to see what would have happened in this timeline if it hadn't been screwed up by that vision and... Boy is it weird." 

Jackie started walking again and explained. "If this timeline had remained as it was then our Pauline still would have thrown herself off a bridge on her fifteenth birthday and survived. But someone besides her parents would have gone to visit her in the hospital. Britney would have gone to check on her and as a result of that visit... They would have become friends. I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes... Twice! But there's one other thing, something a bit kinkier than that. The first thing that Pauline remembered about that dream was an observation. Something that drove Pauline nuts. "Boy, Marco became quite a Mac Daddy in some other timeline." I was able to see what she was talking about. I saw it all the way to the end and what I saw... I still don't know what to make of it." 

"Tell me." 

"It's kinda kinky. The whole thing that ties all this together is our relationships. Relationships between you and Marco. Marco and me. You and Pauline and... You, me and Marco." 

"You, me, and Marco?" Asked Star in a mildly confused tone. 

"You do know what the words, Mac Daddy mean, right?" 

"Well... Yeah, but. Huh... So it was like... You, Marco and me at the same time?" 

"Yeah, and it got very very very... sexual and it was a nightmare. But..." 

"Okay, okay!" Star waved her hands and stopped walking. "Start from the beginning. How did that timeline deviate from this one?" 

Jackie chuckled. "Well that's a difficult thing to quantify. It all started when you used a spell to spy on me and Marco while we were... Well... It started off innocently enough. Marco and I had just gotten back from a date and I had taken my top off and you were using a spell to spy on us and what you saw... This other you, not you, you. The other you really liked what you saw and that led to a sequence of events that almost destroyed Earth, Mewni and Hekapoo's domain." 

"Sex magic? You're telling me that other Me used sex magic?" Replied Star in a flat tone. 

"Yeah." 

"Mom ran me through some pretty basic instructions before she gave me the wand and sent me off to Earth. One of those things was that you do not use the wand while doing anything involving romance. That's a rule going all the way back to Grandma Rhina." 

Jackie stretched out and took on a relieved smile as she continued. "Well, this other you didn't get that lesson I suppose. That timeline had a lot of similarities to this one. But there were a lot of differences. The biggest one... I hope, I pray. Well... Either way." 

"Either way what!?" Star shouted. 

"It's something... Okay Star, let me ask you something. If you had a spell on the loose and it had somehow killed Glossarick, Hekapoo and your mother. Who would you go to for help?" 

"Wow... Um... I'd be really scared and talk to my Father." 

"You wouldn't go to Tom?" 

"Tom? No! Why would I talk to Tom? Especially about that?" 

"Well I don't know. But in that universe where it was you, me and Marco. You asked Tom for help and he led you to a guy named Sam who was like... A personification of the heat death of the universe combined with the devil." 

"Okay... Other than sounding really bad, what's the heat death of the universe?" 

"Ah, it's one of the laws of physics. I'm simplifying but total entropy... disorder, always increases in a closed system. Eventually... Like, trillions of years from now the universe is going to run out of energy. The stars will wink out of the sky, all fuels will be consumed. Food won't be able to be made and life will become impossible." 

"And this Sam guy was a... personification of this?" 

"Yeah." 

"And I went to him for help?" 

"Yeah, you and me and Tom and Marco and Janna. We all went to his castle in the deepest pit of the multiverse at his invitation to get weapons to defeat your rogue spell." 

"This other me sounds like a real idiot." Star said deadpan. 

They had arrived at Britney's house. Jackie sat under the gazebo on the front lawn and said. "Yeah... Probably, but that other me was an idiot too. The invitation was for a costume party. It was this fucked up monster blood orgy. I mean, there were demons running around murdering and raping each other. You showed up as the evil countess, you smoked a few of them with the wand. Janna was a witch, Tom was, just himself. Marco was a knight in shining armor and I was... a slave." 

Jackie laughed somewhat insanely at the notion. 

"I mean, this other me showed up... To a monster murder orgy in the deepest circle of hell. As a slave! It was a very sexy slave costume too. The only reason why I didn't get raped to death was because Marco had me as his... His slave, and the whole thing was just an elaborate test by Mr Heat Death. But I could have died down there... Easily and horrifically and yet... That's... not the dumbest part." 

"What's the dumbest part?" Asked Star. 

"The dumbest part... Well... After that party what should have happened was that we packed up and left hell, defeated your rogue spell and gone back to Earth, right?" 

"Right." Star replied. 

"That's not what happened. On our way out of hell we passed into Hekapoo's Domain where the spell was trapped. Somehow... I'm still kinda fuzzy on this point, other you became one with the spell and waged a decades long war on Janna and everyone else in Hekapoo's Domain. I showed up a little later and waged my own war against you. Marco and Tom showed up even later. Tom lost an arm and I still don't know what happened to him. But the war got crazier and crazier until other Marco and other Me confronted you. I had this badass sword from Heat Death guy that could cut through literally anything... But it wasn't enough. I couldn't summon the will to kill you. Marco... He figured out some trick to seal up the spell and then other you, other me and other Marco spent the next thirty years in orgastic bliss in Hekapoo's Domain." 

"Orgastic?" 

"We were having lots of sex. By then Marco was blinded by sealing the spell and you were an incorporeal goddess. Makes for a rather odd image... Wouldn't you say?" 

"Why did we stay in Hekapoo's Domain for so long? Why didn't we come back to Earth or go to Mewni?" Star asked in a tone of complete disbelief. 

"I think it had something to do with the sealing." 

Star held up the wand and said. "If it was one of my spells then I had to have had some kind of control of it. That's been the way it is for as long as there have been queens of Mewni. Sometimes there's unexpected consequences like what happened with Rhina. But there's never been a spell that's gone completely out of control like that." 

"So are you saying that you don't believe me?" Asked Jackie. 

"I don't know... I mean, you're describing things that just aren't... Here. But just because they aren't here that doesn't mean that they don't exist in some other reality. I suppose there's one thing I want to know. What was it like... This... Mac Daddy universe? What was it like to be in a relationship with Me and Marco?" 

Jackie smiled and said, "well, if you could get around the lies, the omissions, the stupidity, the murders, the rogue spells and all that... It was actually kinda sweet. It didn't quite feel right though. I mean, like you said. Other you was kinda stupid and so was other me. I mean... Well, here's the key point. You saw me and Marco... Together and you made a wish that bound you, me and Marco. That was the rogue... Spell..." 

Jackie went silent. 

She stared at Star. 

"When we all had our big final confrontation with the spell I was able to get to you because I reminded you of Pauline. I reminded you of who you used to be before the spell became one with you. But now that I think about it the more I realize that the answer was staring us in the face... All the way back to the night that you, me and Marco made love in Sam's castle. We never should have done that. Pauline... She is the cord cutter, the severer of magical links." 

"You're saying that this other you should have gone to some other StarFan for help?" Asked Star. 

"No, the Pauline in that world didn't have any magical abilities. No, Sam showed us the consequences of what would happen if we didn't stop Wish. He would have burned Earth, Mewni and Hekapoo's Domain to the ground. But Wish was a spell created from your lust for me and Marco. We should have broken up there and then. I mean... As soon as we saw what it would have done to those worlds... We should have broken up on the spot but we didn't because... Because we made love and disarmed the link, we replaced it with the link of the Blood Moon spell." 

"Replaced it with the... Jackie, the Blood Moon spell doesn't work that way! You can't just arbitrarily add another person to it." 

"How do you know?" 

"Oh, um... After you and StarFan told me about all the trouble caused by me breaking the Blood Moon spell in that other timeline I did some research on it." 

"Ah... That's good." 

Star looked off in the distance and asked. "You said this spell killed Glossarick, Hekapoo... And my mother?" 

"And Toffee, and a bunch of other things." 

Star shook her head and said, "man, it really sounds like this spell bent reality over a barrel and went to town. I mean... The StarFan that started all this, her timeline. The one where I turned into a warmongering lunatic and got kicked out of Mewni. That sounds way more likely than what you're telling me." 

Jackie smiled and said. "Well that's the best part isn't it? It's just a story. Maybe it happened, maybe it's just a fever dream. Either way, it can't happen now." 

"It can't?" 

"No." 

"Why not?" 

"The rogue spell was a variation of Eclipsa's All Seeing Eye spell. I talked to Eclipsa about all this two nights ago and she assured me that how the spell worked in that reality, is not how it works in this reality. The All Seeing Eye is a tremendously powerful spell. Your wand is an incredibly powerful weapon and you can still use it to cause incredible damage. But not that particular form of damage. But enough about that... You've been spying on us? I did illustrate what I did to the last bunch of guys I caught spying on me... Right?"

"Right." 

Jackie got up, clapped her hands and said. 

"Alright, come on then. It's movie night and I think the rule for the next few hours is the more the merrier." 

"Really?" 

"Yeah, really, I'll tell everyone that I bumped into you on the walk back. Pauline, Britney and Kolibri don't need to know that you were spying on us... Yet. Besides, I think we need the wand to finish sewing Pauline and Britney back together. Speaking of which..." 

Jackie let her wings come out and grabbed the wand, in a flash of light it reconfigured itself into a rapier with a glass blade. 

Jackie looked at it for a moment and said. "I spent decades wielding a blade like this in Hekapoo's Domain. I was invincible, the Knight Captain. You were a fool, Marco was a fool, I was the biggest fool of all. But damn if it wasn't badass. I was like... Every kind of cliche of a Princess Warrior that Pauline prattles on about. Except I wasn't a princess, that... Was your job." 

Jackie took a chunk of submarine shrapnel out of her pocket and cut it with the blade. It cut clean through the steel like a scalpel through a grape. Jackie very carefully took the basket hilt and handed the wand back to Star. Which then configured itself into its normal shape. 

"I was Don Quixote, tilting at your windmill for decades. Sent on a mission by the most evil entity I've ever heard of to destroy the second most evil entity I've ever heard of. Let's not do that in this reality, okay, Star?" 

"Okay... wait! there's one last thing I need to know. That reality was caused by a wish by me, for you... and Marco." 

"Yeah." 

"Well how do we know that this timeline wasn't created by some other wish?" 

"Interesting thought, but a wish for what? A wish for the Chinese people to be free from a dictatorship? A wish for Pauline to be the leader she always knew she could be? A wish for Britney to be less of a jerk? A wish for some French girl to go on an adventure? A wish for redemption? A wish for magic to be used for something greater than sex, war or enslavement? Or perhaps... Just a wish for a minor character in a story to get her own story, but to have it make sense this time. Maybe I just thought your wings looked cool, Pauline's wings looked cool and I wanted to see what my wings would look like?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://youtu.be/gefj2nkP2wc
> 
> https://youtu.be/7fv84nPfTH0
> 
> https://youtu.be/-K9hy5QEvRo
> 
> https://youtu.be/UAvzbKGTXbs
> 
> https://youtu.be/1B_aRa7wjao
> 
> https://youtu.be/a0JSR5JTIOE
> 
> And the final one. 
> 
> https://youtu.be/wPmxfyevAz4


End file.
